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

[DonTampa58]

Here is the contact information to flood Wal-Mart with emails and calls.

Maybe they will hear enough. I doubt it, but it will make you feel better.

http://walmartstores.com/contactus/feedback.aspx

To reach the Contact Center of Wal-Mart Stores, call 1-800-WALMART (1-800-925-6278), from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. (CT) Monday - Friday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (CT) Saturday or from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. (CT) Sunday.

[vippy]

Why blame WalMart???? Charge the first people entering the store - the mob. What a mentality.
This is outrageous! Imagine if it were you?

[1oldlady]

Your missing the point...

Walmart is responsible for the safety of its employees and the public who walks on to there parking lot and then into their store to shop.

The person/people to acted in a mob/riot way should be held accountable for there actions, but this is two fold.

Walmart and the mob are at fault, and should have acted in a more community/corporate fashion in this terrible - terrible action.

shame on them for not being a corporate leader! OOps, forgot who this is! sorry!

[OrganOfThought]

Walmart knew there would be heavy crowds, because it is the same every year on Black Friday. This pushing, shoving and trampling has happened before, including at Walmart.

It is the responsibility of Walmart to ensure the safety of its employees. That is very clear in American law.

Walmart should have scheduled more security for the day. Walmart tried to save money and put people at risk and it cost one his life.

Walmart is going to loose the law suit coming to it, and it won't even be a close decision.

[janfin]

Walmart is at fault as are the shoppers. I have long been appalled at the materialism that so many worship in our country and this is one horrible tragic example of it. I feel horrible for the young man and his family. All for a big screen TV or whatever else so many people thought they could not live without. Pathetic, so sad, so tragic.

[vippy]

WalMart is a business! They do what they know is best. Don't blame WalMart for stupid people.
Geez, could they not get the stuff another day. There will be more specials and the After Christmas Specials are even better.

[Tinsdale]

Walmart and any other legal business entity has an implied responsibility for the safety of its employees and customers. Poke your nose into a law book and you will quickly find that out..

[GoodGuysandBadGuys]

good luck.

those people were so blinded by "getting their stuff" that they probably have no idea that they trampled someone.

they'll be found innocent due to temporary insanity. I don't know why these people are wasting their time.

[ycgirl]

"Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a "tragic situation" and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store."

So, let me get this. Ultimately, it is not going to be Wally-world's fault/resp­onsibility­/liability but the temp agency's since that is who Damour directly worked for and the ones who directly pay him. Their extra security is that he, also according to this statement, was supposed to be "doing maintenance work" - gee, he wasn't where he was supposed to be under the terms of the contract with the temp agency, who cares what any WM supervisor may have told him...

[ProgressDon]

Is it Walmart or is it us, all of us?
When you live in a society that values worth in materialistic terms, some people would kill(literally) for that new iphone. Pathetic.

[2PartyDictatorship]

ditto

[OrganOfThought]

well said

but Walmart is the worst of us

[Js420]

F.U.C.K Walmart!

[katedog]

This could've happened at Best Buy. At K-Mart.

[OrganOfThought]

But it didn't. Because Walmart always goes one step further than everyone else. They hire less staff, less security and pressure their shift managers to bring in numbers.

So the shift manager opens all the doors and lets everyone run in because all he sees are numbers.

When I walk in and out of Best Buy, I usually see about 2 or 3 staff near the door and at least 2 guards somewhere in the vicinity. Walmart hires only senior citizens to watch the doors and inadequate unprofessional 2nd rate security.

[amanda038]

Also this story gives new meaning to the phrase "ugly american"

[slaxx]

calm down...every society has its problems.

[ratcity]

You clam down. I guess taking a life does not matter to you.

[Snafu]

Walmart is responsible, no one else. They need to be made to pay, i hope that employees family gets $100,000,000 . The store manager needs to held on manslaughter charges. It happens every year and they should be held accountable. If the first person who ran over the employee stopped to try and help he would have been trampled along with him. it's the people in the back of the crowd pushing that starts this. Seeing the crowd out front the manager should have gone out the back entrance, showed up in front with security and a bullhorn to maintain order.

Every rock concert I've ever been to required the audience to go through single file and even be searched, if you got a rock concert crowd, you need a rock concert security.

[haramagoti]

I agree completely. The store manager was completely responsible, they all knew people were going to stampede and appropriate, life-saving, measures were not taken. Despicable. I hold crowd accountable too, though. They know the difference between a floor and a human being. There should have been more action on their part.

[Julesbaby]

exactly... concerts, sporting events, etc.

The other thing is that these "sales" are marketing strategies to CAUSE a MOB mentality. They are designed that way. Anyone who thinks otherwise is naive. They wanting a spending frenzy.

[OrganOfThought]

no, no, no

Everyone is always responsible for their actions. Walmart is responsible for its negligence and should pay a heavy fine, change its practices and pay to take care of this man's family. But..... so are the people that did the trampling.

There is no excuse for violence. Even if you were only "trying to shop" it doesn't give you a pass. If you push somebody, or push something onto somebody and injure them, then you are ALSO at fault. No one that was involved is blame free.

Walmart should pay a heavy price for its negligence, but the people that did the trampling are guilty too. If they were innocent like you suggest, they would have stopped and at least tried to help. They definitely would not have just stepped over him and went on shopping. If you have any decency and you are stuck in front with people pushing you, you will do everything in your power (even at the risk of breaking a limb) to hold on, yell to the back, grab the injured man, or even tackle some people if you had to.

You do not step over an injured person and go on shopping.

[amanda038]

I do not shop at Walmart because they have unethical business practices and unfair labor practices. I think its about time for cities and municipalities to pass legislation that demands that stores hire off duty police to control crowds for these "doorbuster" sales. If you want to arrest somebody, you'd have to arrest all of society...crowds like these turn into mobs and only uniformed security people would be able to prevent this. " Hurry in and get your melemaine contaminated baby formula folks"! It seems every year it's always Walmart that has these things happen.

[MiddleRed]

I used to manage a region of Target stores. The practices of Target are exactly the same. The amount of China made products is the same.

[katedog]

Yeah, but Target doesn't have those creepy greeters.

[kylennblack]

Walmart represents the worst trai.ler tra.sh values. I poked my head into one once during a holiday season years ago and was utterly disgusted and I left imediately. I have never shopped there and I certainly never will.

I hope those stampeding animals are thrown in jail and if there is any cosmic justice the savages who whined about the store being closed because someone DIED should get thrown in with them.

[llisa]

There are many reasons I have never shopped on the day after Thanksgiving. Death was not one of them. I will add it to my list now.

[abbeyroad]

should wal-mart have had iron barricades set up ? -- yes.

should wal-mart have implemented a "first-come, first-serve" numbered bracelet plan ? -- yes.

should wal-mart have hired extra security to control the crowd ? -- yes.

would wal-mart have spent an extra cent to protect their employees and their customers ?
-- NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS..

[AlsoSarah]

Who would like to speculate that WalMart have their folks all over this already and the family is already sequestered?

[escobar]

Seems the USA should look to China for advice on running an economy not Harvard.

[Bongborg]

The guy was a temp worker. When they told him to go open the door, his reply should have been, "F*ck you, Kemo Sabe."

[Bushwillresign]

Or at least "me no speeka de englay"..

[Ssebo]

Anything for a bargain!!

[KaPi]

Absolutely. No need to let something like human life get in the way of a $28 compact upright vacuum.

[LisaLisa1234]

What price, a human life? Despicable.