A 77-year-old man who confronted a teenage Walmart employee for nearly hitting his wife with a shopping cart was beaten to death inside the store by the teen's parents, and the couple now faces second-degree murder charges.
Bert Atienza and his wife Josephine had just come from church. They stopped at a Walmart in Norfolk, Virginia, to pick up groceries. A 17-year-old employee drove a heavy cart down an aisle and nearly struck Josephine. The teen didn't apologize. Bert spoke up. Within minutes, the teen's parents arrived at the store, and Bert Atienza was on the ground bleeding from his mouth, his wife kneeling over him, begging the attackers to stop.
He died the next day, on June 8, from blunt head trauma. Medical officials ruled his death a homicide.
Josephine Atienza, Bert's wife of 42 years, told the New York Post what her husband said to the teen employee after the cart nearly hit her:
"He said, 'You almost hit my wife with your heavy cart, and you did not even say excuse me or apologize to her.'"
That was it. A 77-year-old man asked a teenager for basic courtesy. Josephine described her husband as someone who spoke his mind plainly, no matter who he was talking to. An argument followed. The teen allegedly threw a can toward the couple as they walked away. Then she called her parents.
Travis White, 44, and Erika Mitchell, 42, came to the Walmart. Store surveillance video obtained by WTKR captured what happened next. Josephine described the attack in her own words:
"They crowded my husband, one of the adults hit him in the face. He fell down on the floor. I was terrified. I don't know what's going on."
Bert Atienza was shoved from behind, grabbed, and punched in the face. He was shoved into a shelving unit and collapsed to the ground. Even after he fell, the beating continued. Josephine told reporters she pleaded with the attackers to stop.
"While he's on the floor, they're still kicking him and I told them stop. My husband has heart problems."
She held her husband in her lap on the store floor. He was still conscious enough to speak at first.
"My husband was still able to speak, he said, 'Help me, get up,' but I told him, 'no you're bleeding. Your mouth is bleeding. Ambulance is coming.'"
Then he stopped responding.
"I look at him again. He has no more consciousness."
Bert Atienza was rushed to a hospital. He never recovered. He died on June 8.
White and Mitchell were initially arrested and charged with malicious wounding by mob, aggravated malicious wounding, and conspiracy to commit a felony. After Atienza died, court records reviewed by the Post show prosecutors upgraded the charges to second-degree murder. Both are being held in Norfolk jail without bond.
Their 17-year-old daughter, the Walmart employee who started the argument, was charged with assault and battery, aggravated malicious wounding, and conspiracy to commit a felony. She is being held at the Norfolk Juvenile Detention Center. Officials have withheld her name because of her age. She no longer works at Walmart.
The conspiracy charge is worth noting. Prosecutors appear to view the sequence, the teen's call to her parents, their arrival, and the coordinated attack, as more than a spontaneous outburst. The charges suggest a deliberate escalation: the teen summoned adults to confront a 77-year-old man over a verbal disagreement about a shopping cart.
James Broccoletti, the defense attorney for White and Mitchell, pushed back on the severity of the charges. He told WTKR that the parents came to the store because their daughter was upset, and that any parent would have done the same.
"They did not go there, intending for any of this to happen. It was an emotional situation. Their daughter called them. She was distraught. They went, as any parent would do, to try to make sure that their daughter was safe and then the situation kind of erupted. It was spontaneous almost."
Broccoletti went further, arguing the evidence supports nothing more than a simple assault, a misdemeanor, and that no reasonable person would have expected Atienza to die from the encounter.
"We think that the evidence establishes at best an assault because they punched the gentleman, there is some evidence my client may have kicked him, but that's simple assault, that's a misdemeanor. There is nothing that goes further than that, that indicates that there was any chance or likelihood or probability that this man would die as a result of this."
That argument will face a jury's scrutiny. A 77-year-old man with heart problems was punched in the face, thrown into a shelf, knocked to the floor, and kicked while he lay there. He died of blunt head trauma within 24 hours. Whether or not the attackers "intended" to kill him, the foreseeable risk of beating an elderly man is not a mystery that requires expert testimony to unravel.
Josephine Atienza told reporters what the loss has meant for her family:
"I lost a husband of 42 years, and my son lost a father. As each day passes by, I feel the pain of loneliness about being by myself now."
Bert and Josephine Atienza went to church that morning. They went to buy groceries. He asked a teenager for an apology after she nearly hit his wife with a cart. For that, two adults drove to a Walmart and beat him until he couldn't stand.
The defense wants to call it a misdemeanor. The Medical Examiner called it a homicide. The court records now call it second-degree murder.
Somewhere between a teenager who couldn't say "excuse me" and two parents who answered a phone call with their fists, a 77-year-old man who spoke his mind lost his life. The system that holds White and Mitchell without bond has the right idea. When grown adults respond to a verbal complaint by kicking an elderly man on a store floor, accountability is the only answer that matters.
