Wal-Mart To Pay $2 Million Over Black Friday Stampede Death
USA Todayreports that Wal-Mart is going to spend $2 million to improve safety at 92 New York Wal-Mart stores over the death of temporary employee Jdimytai Damour on Black Friday last year. Jdimytai Damour was trampled when a sea of two thousand shoppers stormed a Long Island Walmart as its doors opened at 5 a.m. on Black Friday. The settlement allows Wal-Mart to avoid criminal charges.
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said that if she had brought criminal charges against the store in the worker’s death, it would have been subject to only a $10,000 fine if convicted.
Instead, the AP reports, Rice said Wal-Mart has agreed to implement an improved crowd-management plan for the "Black Friday" sales, set up a $400,000 victims’ compensation and remuneration fund, and give $1.5 million to Nassau County social services programs and nonprofit groups.
The New York Daily Newssays Jdimytai Damour's family is not happy with the settlement and rejected it as "shameful." Hopefully, Wal-Mart will do more to prepare for Black Friday in other states as well. The New York stores were not the only Wal-Mart stores will out-of-control crowds on Black Friday last year.
Police Provide Recommendations for Stores to Implement Following Black Friday Death
Several news outlets here, here and here are reporting that the Nassau County police has issued a set of recommendations for stores to follow when they hold big sales to prevent incidents like last year's Black Friday death. The Nassau County police say they will provide support whenever it is needed but that the overall responsibility lies with the stores. The police said, "the responsibility for the security and control of these sales events rests with the store. Store administrators should never market a sales event without having a plan, and the proper resources to manage it."
The recommendations come after a temporary Walmart employee Jdimytai Damour was trampled and killed by a large crowd of 2,000 shoppers at a Walmart store early in the morning on Black Friday, December 1st.
Here's a list of some of the recommendations from the police report:
Setting up barricades and/or rope lines to manage crowds ahead of the sale
Handing out wristbands or numbered tickets to shoppers
Positioning store employees in the parking lot and giving them radios so they can share information.
Stores should have shoppers enter the stores in smaller groups
Retailers should provide shoppers with maps showing where to find the hottest sale items.
Patrons should be kept out once the store reaches maximum occupancy.
Phone police if crowds get unruly
Police also said stores should plan whom to call in a medical emergency but they should also have defibrillators on hand and train staffers in how to use them.
Those all sound like great ideas. We will see if any of them are implemented by Walmart and other retailers on Black Friday next year. We would also like to see retailers stop using the word "door busters" - no need to suggest shoppers break down the doors to get to the sales.
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."
Several news outlets 
