Police Seeking Wal-Mart Shoppers Who Trampled Employee

NEW YORK — Police are reviewing surveillance videos of a post-Thanksgiving shopper stampede that trampled a suburban Wal-Mart worker to death, but they acknowledge it may be difficult to bring criminal charges.

Nassau County police and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said no new information was available Saturday on the employee's brutal death, which rattled shoppers even as they flocked to the Valley Stream store a day later.

"It felt a little freakish," customer Ellie Berhun, 48, told the Daily News. "Some man lost his life because a VCR was on sale? Please. It's just too sad for words."

Police said the temporary worker, Jdimytai Damour, was mowed down as about 2,000 bargain-hunters surged into the store at Friday's 5 a.m. opening, leaving a metal portion of the door frame crumpled like an accordion.

Other workers were knocked to the ground as they tried to rescue Damour, and customers simply stepped over him and kept shopping even as the store announced it was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

At least four other people, including a woman eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or treatment for minor injuries. The store, about 20 miles east of Manhattan, closed for several hours but reopened Friday afternoon.

The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday because it has traditionally marked the point when a throng of shoppers pushes stores into profitability for the year.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said it added staffers and outside security workers and put up barricades to try to prepare for the crush. But police spokesman Detective Lt. Michael Fleming said Friday that security was inadequate for a scene he called "utter chaos."

Criminal charges are possible, but identifying anyone in the store's videos may prove difficult, Fleming said.

Damour, 34, came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store, Wal-Mart said.

A woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in Farmingdale, about 15 miles east of Valley Stream, Suffolk County police said. She suffered minor injuries but finished shopping before filling the report, police said.

Items on sale at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart included a Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $798, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as "The Incredible Hulk" for $9.

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AP retail writers Anne D'Innocenzio and Mae Anderson contributed to this report.

Comments

[tjwdraws]

happy birthday baby jesus

[Jtt]

It really is unbelievable isn't it, I mean when you consider what it is supposed to be about. I don't think the most diabolically evil could purposely ever accomplish whats been done to Christmas (and Christianity for that matter)

[rzzza]

i cannot imagine wanting to get INTO a walmart so badly. Wanting to get out, now that i understand.

[Samalabear]

Yeah. It takes a lot of courage for me to walk into a Wal-Mart each week. Last week I actually had to leave before I got what I needed. It was a zoo and most of what I needed they didn't have. I really hate that place. I do feel sorry for anybody who has to work there.

[mikemedeiros]

Absolutely, the hypocracy surrounding the season and the mentality of people during the holidays is disgusting. Why does the rest of the world hate us ? Mostly Bush, but looking at stuff like this I hate us too.
I'm an atheist and have refused to participate in this insanity for 20 years; one of the best choices I've ever made. And even if I did want to celebrate the birth of Jesus I wouldn't do it in the winter (no date is given in the bible) when by all scholarly accounts now he was born in the spring.

[BillMelater]

This is one sorry way to start the Christmas season. My condolences to those workers and their families.

http://billmel8er.wordpress.com

[rockyb26]

good luck with that one

[helonias]

Stuff happens when you are trying to amass worldly stuff

[Clairvaux]

You have to expect a dead employee now and then when you're trying to be first in line for a sale.

I mean, we've got to think in terms of priorities here.

[Graz]

I hope the police are able to identify even a few of the people responsibl­e...beside Wal-Mart and this ridiculously crazed day of consumerism run amok. The people that act like this are worse than cattle.

[tlgeiger62]

I hope those that were the first through the doors are haunted for the rest of their lives. You have put out some very dangerous karma. And you will reap what you sow.

[MsMargaret]

They will not. They will replace those thoughts with the contented, grateful faces of their loved ones gazing blissfully at the plasma watching The Incredible Hulk, .

[Hamatreya]

What do you have against cattle?

[BlueZoo]

I agree! This horror gives cattle a bad name!

[lodipete]

The cops are looking in the wrong place. The real culprits are in Benton,Arkansas.

[whatthel]

Wal-Mart is partly responsible for this. Their sales practices incite this kind of behavior

[tlgeiger62]

You cannot say Walmart is responsible. Ultimately YOU are responsible for YOUR behavior.

[sarasotajeff]

Wal-Mart and the managers of this store knew what to expect Friday morning, and did not plan for it... The shoppers are not without responsibility, but if Walmart had been prepared, had adequate staff, crowd control (not temps untrained in crowd control), and POLICE on site to handle the Friday morning madness they encouraged, this would not have happened. Some blame absolutely belongs on the shoppers who did not care what was under their feet or what was going on around them, and a good portion of the blame belongs on Walmart and its managers.

[TurtleGuy]

Absolutely they are! They have to anticipate large rabid crowds, and have crowd control measures to make sure things do not get out of hand. They are responsible for their guests, just like any host would be. Once that store saw people lining up the morning before to get in, they should have had swarms of security opening the doors and keeping the lines organized. Instead they let a temp open the door and get trampled to death.

Around here, cops refuse to allow anything like that to happen, and force the stores to have hired extra security to avoid problems like this. So we force it on the stores, they are pretty much unwilling to pay for this stuff unless forced to do it.

[sjcb8]

i would normally agree with you, but this seems to happen EVERY YEAR at a walmart! i am from grand rapids michigan and i lived there when the really bad trampling happened. after that disgrace, walmart as a corporation should have 10 times the precautions that they have.

that said, ultimately you have to look at the type of person who would rip doors off hinges to save a few bucks. i hope whoever stepped on this poor man, walked right by as he lay there dying, or complained about the store closing after his death are HAUNTED for the rest of their sale-loving lives.

[PirateRo]

Yes they are. They don't pay their people a decent wage or even care about health insurance and go out of their way to pressure you to leave a job you can't afford to keep.

It's a useless, worthless organization - the simple fact something like this is even REMOTELY possible is absolutely their problem.

[partyofone]

exactly. If Walmart promotes it, and does not staff for crowd control, they are indeed responsible. With off duty police at the door, they could easily have controlled entry to prevent a hysterical stampede.

[sdskelton03]

I know we are supposed to hate Wal-Mart around here, but I can't say this is their fault.

This is the fault of the people that acted like savages. They should be held responsible.

[gorideabike]

Yes they have great bargains on teevees and other hot consumer items. These loss leaders are also known to be in very short supply. The only way to get one is to stand in line all night and then run like hell and grab one. Wally*world knows how to incite a riot, yup, yup.

[Donkeykick]

I think that stores should be held more responsible for these sort of scenarios.

[cheneyhasawarmachine]

what do you expect when all the bush administration asks of us after 9/11 is to go out and shop. people were just doing what bush told them to do. how many people can bush indirectly or directly be responsible for killing before we impeach him?

[DryIce]

What's with that last paragraph? Was the reporter paid to include advertising?

[histryteacher]

Doesn't that last paragraph speak volumes about the consumer culture we live in?
Tragic death -
But there's a sale on!

[whatthel]

Maybe a nice HD TV.

[Samalabear]

No, but I think it brings to light what drove these people there. Forget the other items -- these people were after the TVs. That was happening at a lot of Wal-Marts yesterday according to reports. People selling their souls for a TV.

I'm not surprised this happened at a Wal-Mart. I've never seen a happy worker at a Wal-Mart, the atmosphere is like a zoo. The Wal-Mart I go to now I was looking forward to and it started out being clean and well-stocked and nice personnel. It's been open about 6 years now. It is now a pit like a typical Wal-Mart. They are nothing like the warm and fuzzy advertisements.

This is a situation that begs for a big lawsuit. Unfortunately it is the only thing that corporations like Wal-Mart understand. Personally I would love to see a boycott of Wal-Mart, but it won't happen because too many of their shoppers are like this vicious crowd.

[Hamatreya]

The boycott begins with you. I started mine over ten years ago. I haven't brought the retail giant down yet, but I haven't wasted a dime in that dump. Buy American, buy local, or just don't buy at all.

[tlgeiger62]

Frankly I didn't know that those are the prices on things and that this is why people do it. I mean I knew they have 'sale' prices but I didn't know the extent.

I hope knowing this doesn't make more people do it next year.

To an extent, I think the stores that do this are doing more harm than good since people are taking their 'entitlement' attitude to the stores and buy things that will only make them want more. They need to stop this practice. Do they really make money on this?

[HalBrown]

Absolutely, the brand names and prices are irrelevant to the story and a merely adequate editor could have been changed the sentence to read "Sale items included televisions, vacuum cleaners, cameras and DVDs at 20% on HD TV's and 50% on a $150 digital cameras."

Or it could have been left out.

Or, perish the thought, they could have spent ten minutes on Google and looked up the price range of Samsung 50" plasma televisions and 10.2 megapixel cameras, and reported that people were trampling each other to save $200 off full retail of the TV and $70 on the camera, probably savings they would have found next week in both Walmart and other stores.