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

[abbeyroad]

the news just reoprted that the family of the deceased man had complained to the store managers because they were asking him to do security work when he was hired out to do maintainance work.

[SanDiegoView]

The Christian effort to develop Christlike character in people and the caring interest in others in ‘love one another’ has been countermanded by WalMart and their vicious ‘love of money’ indifference to others as evidenced in this event and what WalMart is all about. This is what drinking the WalMart Kool-Aid will do to you personally and the American culture under a Bushco/WalMart distressed economy.

These are WalMart shoppers at a WalMart store who killed a WalMart (temp) employee and injured other WalMart employees due to WalMart business practices creating a WalMart stampede that put the public at risk at WalMart.

You can’t yell ‘fire!!’ in a crowded movie theater because of the consequences and therefore it is illegal...­but WalMart has been allowed to yell ‘fire sale!!’ and seek to evade any responsibility for their part in this stampede.

Pro-WalMart propaganda frauds will try desperately to lead people to believe that WalMart had nothing to do with a stampede that occurred at one of their stores.

Walmartsyc­ophantpsyc­hophobia- The strange, obsessive and abnormal fear of WalMart being disliked by others.

WalMart Stampede of 2008- Making America’s Thanksgiving more enjoyable.

SanDiegoView in WalMart is a hyperconsumption cult

[Hamatreya]

WM has been pretty involved in promoting the Bush-flavored Christlike Character in the great consumer flock all along. If j had showed his face in the last eight years they'd have locked him up at Gitmo.

[chris2fer]

So they trample him to buy cheap plastic slave labor goods made in China. What is wrong with that picture? I would sue them until they cried.

[1oldlady]

thats a hard one to to since the temp employee was not working for walmart but the agency who sent him there!

The agency may have to shut down, but walmart will just find another patsy!

[ridesymbol]

Hell no. Wal Mart is totally culpable on this one, legally, morally and in every wat possible.

[1oldlady]

He was a temp...Nev­ertheless, Walmart will try and recoup any medical costs from his family and other employees - remember its "just business" and not "personal".

[mspink]

I do not shop at Walmart. I would rather pay a higher price for an item than give money to this souless corporate behemoth.

[susou]

As an associate of Walmart who watched people run into the store-- there is no way you can stop those people. They don't care, they just run.

I happened to see a flyer on the ground and I knew someone may have tripped or fallen over it, so I tried to move my way through the crowd to pick it up, so no one would get hurt, and thankfully, no one at my store did.

I was surprised to see so many people. They just came rolling in... But this happens every year.

You can't just blame Walmart, you just have to blame the ENTIRE RETAIL system!

The economy is in the dumps, and all these retails are slashing prices. People want the biggest TV for the cheapest pice, and they'll camp out all night.

Like one of my co-workers said, no one should be allowed to camp out. And there would only allow a few people in at a time, but again, people would complain.

What pissed me off about this incident in NY is when they had to close the store- the people were pissed because they've been waiting yesterday--- they had no regard for the man who just died, and that's disgusting!

[vinainor]

Shopping..­.above all else! Real American values!

[damorris1]

Add my name to the list of Americans who will never shop at a Wal-Mart. Hear that, Bentonville, I will never, ever shop at a Wal-Mart. It takes three seconds to do this. Send the message to the corporate criminals who have ruined America.

[Norak]

Wal-Mart didn't kill him. Overeager, mindless shoppers did.

[exdubyafan]

Yea, just like junk food don't make people obese, drugs don't make addicts, guns don't kill people... Walmart is the biggest pusher to americans who are addicted to cheap goods.

[inluvwkeitholbermann]

so sad.....th­e people outside were getting impatient and chanting "OPEN UP!!" and when they finally did open this was the result....­..a sad day for humanity

[Tinsdale]

"The store, about 20 miles east of Manhattan, closed for several hours but reopened Friday afternoon.­" This sentence says all we need to know about Walmart and their concern for human life, their interest in a successful prosecution of the perpetrators and their full cooperation with law enforcement.

No closing of the store. No attempt to competently manage a death investigation. No prompt isolation of a fresh crime scene. No sequestering of the people in that mob. No isolation of possible suspects based on thier appearance­,clothing, etc. that was available through images from the survellience tape which was running at the time. The modern digital tapes can provide the hour, minute and seconds for frame by frame images that can be retrieved very quickly. All seems to be overlooked , including counseling or intervention and support for their own store employees who must have been affected. Total and infuriating negligence.

Good luck with nabbing suspects days/weeks after the fact when you had each and every individual involved in this tragic event inside the facility immediately after the incident. Disgraceful.

[LeftistGuerrilla]

IF I WAS THERE I JUST WOULD HAVE LET ALL THE CUSTOMERS IN THEN LOCK THE DOOR. TELL THEM THE ARE MATERIAL WITNESSES AND THEN IDENTIFIED WHO WAS WHERE WHEN THIS UNFORTUNATE OCCURANCE HAPPENED.G­GG

[emh]

i wish you wouldn't yell, but you actually made an excellent point. instead of opening back up for more spending, police could have watched the videos and matched people up right there and then by clothing, hair color, etc. it will be next to impossible to identify any of them now.

[Syddiggers]

U.S.A. land of the selfish, and the home of the blissfully ignorant.

[jdenham]

It is really sad how materialistic these people are that they would keep walking over a human being and not stop and help. They had to know they stepped on someone. And to keep on shopping afterwards, are these people animals with no feelings just the lust for a couple dollars savings. Really Sad.

[brooklyncitizen]

I hope they find them. How can you not know you are trampling a fellow human being? was Bush shopping there that day?

[strangebee]

Even if they can't bring actual charges they should at least identify these people and make a spectacle out of them.

[OrganOfThought]

I agree, but I really think charges can be made.

Some people had direct contact with the man that died. They either pushed him, shoved him, pushed the metal door onto him, pinned him down, or at the minimum, blocked other people that were trying to get to the injured person to help.

I am not a lawyer, but I would think a good DA could argue Involuntary Manslaughter, or maybe some other similar charge.