Police are looking into the death of 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour of Jamaica, Queens who was pushed to the ground and trampled when a sea of two thousand shoppers stormed a Long Island Walmart as its doors opened at 5 a.m. on Black Friday. Gothamist reports that police say the crowd in the Long Island Walmart was out of control. Detective Lieutenant Michael Fleming says the crowd "overran him and kept running into the store. They pushed right over his body." Gothamist also quotes a couple of shoppers who were at the Walmart. One of the shoppers said the Black Friday shoppers even stepped on police who were trying to help Damour.
Shopper Nakea Augustine, who took photographs of the mass of people, said, "Nobody was trying to help him. They were rushing in the store, rushing, rushing, rushing." A cop said that cops performing CPR on Damour were also stepped on by shoppers. Another shopper said that Wal-Mart employees' pleas to shoppers were ignored, "When they were saying [shoppers] had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, 'I've been on line since Friday morning!' They kept shopping."
A New York Timesarticle contains a brief statement from Walmart about the incident.
A Wal-Mart spokesman, Dan Folgleman, called it a "tragic situation," and said the victim had been hired from a temporary staffing agency and assigned to maintenance work. Wal-Mart, in a statement issued at its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., said: "The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families at this tragic time."
Bruce Both - who represents Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers - calls Wal-Mart irresponsible.
"Where were the safety barriers?" said Bruce Both, the union president. "Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner? This is not just tragic; it rises to a level of blatant irresponsibility by Wal-Mart."
The Associated Press reports that charges are possible and police are reviewing surveillance tapes. Police say it may hard to single out those who were responsible. Police also say there was not enough security at that the store.
The Walmart in Long Island has reopened to shoppers but this Black Friday incident needs to be investigated to help make sure that this kind of needless tragedy isn't repeated again this holiday season or again next year. Gizmodo says, "It's sad and despicable, and it's equally the fault of the dehumanized shoppers and the WalMart store it happened at." Newsday article cites psychologists who say these kinds of stampedes are fueled by "fear and greed."
