Black Friday Kills - WalMart employee and other retail related deaths

[MrSunshineState]

If I were the lead detective on the homicide case, I would have made the lives of everybody in that store as miserable as I could. Especially since there are reports of customers COMPLAINING about having to leave the store while the cops did their investigation.

See, if they are all witnesses or persons of interest or even suspects, they could technically be held for up to 24 hours without being charged. You bet your last dollar I would have had each and every one of them at the police station for the full 24 hours.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I'd love to see the security camera footage when that happened, just because I still can't fathom people shoving enough to break the doors.

Collectively, those people would've had to exert force close to a car crashing through the doors. Plus I just want to see how nuts these people are.

I guess it's morbid curiosity more than anything. I imagine that video will be leaked out somehow.

[Nyoibo]

Meh, I've taken doors off their hinges before, mind you I was drunk which tends to increase my strength/decrease the pain.

And I'm sure you'll be able to find the footage online somewhere soon.

[ditchdj]

Having four dogs, I realize that humans really dont behave that much differently than people do. When I put down the food and water for them, they charge for it and push and shove their way to it. Two of them even get into nasty fights over it and I have to physically pull them off of each other. It's like a "Canine Black Friday" when my dogs get together to eat.

Of course it's humans that are supposed to have the bigger brains and know better, but sometimes you'd never know.

[snackbandit]

NY times reports:

By 4:55, with no police officers in sight, the crowd of more than 2,000 had become a rabble, and could be held back no longer. Fists banged and shoulders pressed on the sliding-glass double doors, which bowed in with the weight of the assault. Six to 10 workers inside tried to push back, but it was hopeless.

Suddenly, witnesses and the police said, the doors shattered, and the shrieking mob surged through in a blind rush for holiday bargains. One worker, Jdimytai Damour, 34, was thrown back onto the black linoleum tiles and trampled in the stampede that streamed over and around him. Others who had stood alongside Mr. Damour trying to hold the doors were also hurled back and run over, witnesses said.

Holy sonnofagun.

Also: suing walmart is really not the answer here. The only reason to go after walmart is because it has some megabucks, and not because it was truly responsible. Apparently, police were present, meaning that steps WERE taken to try to prevent things from getting out of hand, although they were not seen at the time of the incident.
Walmart shouldn't be held responsible for not anticipating the animalistic frenzy the idiot shoppers worked themselves into. They had cops and barriers. What more do you want, arming the employees with automatic rifles? (hey, not a bad idea, actually!)

[ditchdj]

Actually suing them wouldn't be a bad idea. The law says you're responsible for what happens to anyone that you permit to be on your property.

[saint]

Prayers and love for his family.

I'm too busy balling my eyes out to add anything more.

[snackbandit]

Suing them would almost certainly be legal, but would it be ethical? I mean, $12 million won't bring your child back, will it?

[ditchdj]

I really dont see how criminal charges could stick. What would you do if you were up against those doors with the weight of 2 THOUSAND people pushing you forward???? It's almost like "Survival of the Fittest" in that situation. You either get on the bus or literally get thrown under it.

[JLRodgers]

If the people bust in (before they were ready) wouldn't they just charge the people who first broke in?

If not -- charge them all (that were caught on tape being "responsible" with minor things - like those pushing, walking on, etc) -- just enough to make them think twice, but not enough to actually hurt their chances for jobs/etc. Sadly, unless they say that you can be charged with something - it'll just keep on happening. Make a case that if you do something in mob mentality, you're still responsible, people (and stores) might just change things to make it safer for everyone.

After all, it's just stuff and "crap" that doesn't matter, at a cost savings -- getting hurt/killed over it isn't worth the entire store's worth of stuff (well maybe getting slightly injured for a few hundred thousand of televisions might be ), but you know.

[Amina516]

Two words:

Civil Suit.


I dont know who the family would bring it against, but they would most definately have a case. Money doesnt make the dead come back, but someone has to pay. What happened to that poor man was disgusting. The ultimate show of [america's ?] consumer greed. It makes me very sad.

[MattW]

Heard about this a couple of hours ago. What happened really is the ugly face of capitalism.

RIP

[PizzaDrone]

Absolutely disgusting! Prayers are with his family, coworkers and also to those others with injuries from the idiots who did this. Complaining when being told to leave because an employee has died is rediculous. These people should be ashamed of themselves for turning into utter monsters for the sake of saving some money.

That poor guy.

[hobbitt97]

Walmart Horror

I heard today about the Walmart Sales rep that was trampled by shoppers in Valley Stream NY. The young man died. The shoppers even kept knocking into the police that were trying to aid him. And Walmart kept ringing out shoppers as the fellow died. It took them time to close the store. Disgusting!!!!

I will pray for his family, his loved ones and his co-workers.

[ADoyle90815]

Greed like this is sickening, especially since someone was killed. In a way, I'm not too surprised since 2 years ago, there were people who almost got into a fist fight over a parking space when the local Circut City opened.