[Metrujectiktus]

This is just so .... so... i don't know:

Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death
By JACK HEALY and ANGELA MACROPOULOS
Published: November 28, 2008

A Wal-Mart employee in suburban New York died after he was trampled by a crush of shoppers who tore down the front doors and thronged into the store early Friday morning, turning the annual rite of post-Thanksgiving bargain hunting into a Hobbesian frenzy.

At 4:55 a.m., just five minutes before the doors were set to open, a crowd of 2,000 anxious shoppers started pushing, shoving and piling against the locked sliding glass doors of the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y., Nassau County police said. The shoppers broke the doors off their hinges and surged in, toppling a 34-year-old temporary employee, Jdimypai Damour, 34, of Jamaica, Queens, who had been waiting with other workers in the store’s entryway.

People did not stop to help the employee as he lay on the ground, and they pushed against other Wal-Mart workers who were trying to aid Mr. Damour. The crowd kept running into the store even after the police arrived, jostling and pushing officers who were trying to perform CPR, the police said.

“They were like a stampede,” said Nassau Det. Lt. Michael Fleming. “Hundreds of people walked past him, over him or around him.”

Mr. Damour was taken from the Wal-Mart to nearby Franklin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 a.m., the police said. His exact cause of death has not been determined. The police said that three other shoppers were injured and a 28-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant was taken to the hospital for observation.

One shopper, Kimberly Cribbs, said she was standing near the back of the crowd at around 5 a.m. on Friday when people started rushing into the store. She said several people were knocked to the ground, and parents had to grab their children by the hand to keep them from being caught in the crush.

“They were falling all over each other,” she said. “It was terrible.”

Crowds began building outside the Wal-Mart at 9 p.m. Thursday and grew throughout the night, as eager shoppers queued up in a line that filled the sidewalk and stretched toward the boundary fence of the Green Acres Mall.

At 3:30 a.m., store employees called the Nassau police to report that the crowd was growing quickly, the police said. Officers came by to try to organize the line, but were called away to a Circuit City, a Best Buy and a B.J.’s Wholesale Club nearby, to deal with crowds there.

A half-dozen Wal-Mart employees lined up in the entryway trying to hold back the crowd by pushing against the locked sliding doors, but they were overwhelmed by the force of the crowd, Lieutenant Fleming said.

As the doors snapped open and people streamed in, several people fell on top of one another. The 34-year-old employee who died was at the bottom of the pile, the police said.

On Friday, Wal-Mart released a statement saying that the man who was killed had been working for Wal-Mart through a temp agency. The company called the death “a tragic situation,” and said it was working with police.

“The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority,” Wal-Mart said in a statement.

Lieutenant Fleming said that the store “could have done more” to prevent the melee.

“I’ve heard other people call this an accident, but it’s not,” he said. “This certainly was foreseeable.”

[xanonlinexan]

How can you read this headline and not laugh?

2 Shot Dead at California Toys R Us
Friday, November 28, 2008

Two men were shot and killed Friday inside a Toys R Us in Palm Desert, Calif., during a confrontation apparently involving rival groups, city officials said.

Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson said police told him two men with handguns shot and killed each other. Ferguson said he asked police whether the incident was a dispute over a toy or whether it was gang-related. He said police told him they were not going to release further details until the victims' relatives were notified.

"I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys "R" Us?" he said. "I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper."

City spokeswoman Sheila Gilligan said police told her the shooting broke out between "two groups of individuals that have a dispute with each other."

Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez said Palm Desert police got a call saying shots had been fired inside the store around 11:35 a.m.

"We have two dead individuals inside the store," Gutierrez said. "The events of why the shots were fired is still ongoing."

Witnesses are calling the incident a murder-suicide, but that could not be immediately confirmed.


Shopper Sarah Pacia, of Cathedral City, Calif., told The Desert Sun that she was browsing through the coloring books in the store with her two young sons, ages 4 and 6, when she heard a ruckus coming from the next aisle.

At first, she thought it was a Black Friday scuffle over a toy on sale, the paper reported. Then she heard three or four shots ring out. Store employees quickly escorted her outside.

She said her terrified 4-year-old son Jayden clung to her leg and told her that he didn't want to die.

"This is Toys R Us. There are kids shopping in there," Pacia told the Sun.

Immediately after the shooting, about 20 people rushed into the World Gym across the street from Toys 'R' Us, the gym's assistant manager Glenn Splain told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

"They were crying, tearing and shaking," Splain said, adding that one woman came in cradling a baby.

"Some people got into a fight," said Splain, who spoke with some of the customers. "One of the guys here thought it was over a toy but it got louder and louder and then there were gunshots."

Palm Desert is about two hours southeast of Los Angeles.

[ConoMadura]

That's insane!!

I was actually one of MANY employees last night that worked midnight until 4 a.m. at the Jordan Creek Towncenter here in West Des Moines, IA. There was definitely some arm shoving as the thousands and thousands of people came running through the front door at midnight, but nothing horrible like this. Wow..

[xanonlinexan]

Today has definetely been a "Black" friday.

[WhonyGataxott]

The cops should have done the old fasiioned shotgun announcement to get the people at the Wal-Mart to pay attension.

That or a tractor trailer air-horn.

It is really sad to see people reduced to this anamalistic state where they will crush and trample even those trying to help others.


Over WAL MART.

[RicyReetred]

Word on the news today is that the WalMart employee who was trampled, Jdimypai Damour, was actually trying to protect the pregnant woman from the rushing crowd of shoppers when he was overwhelmed.

God Bless the mighty dollar. And a Merry Christmas to all.

[Ephejvll]

Do you think everyone in the mob should be arrested and held as an accessory to manslaughter?

Mob rule should never be an excuse.

[Sdinozes]

Do you think WalMart, their PR frim and all TV & radio stations who aired their Black Friday Sale ads should be prosecuted as "accessories" (seeing as how they are all complicit in whipping up the SHOP + SAVE frenzy)?

[Machater]

In a TV commentary on this sad episode in human behavior, it was noted that when the store closing was announced, some "shoppers" thought it was unfair, since they were on line since 9PM on Thursday.

So is this what we've come to? Waiting on a line on Thanksgiving, not for a job or food, but mostly useless junk that WalMart has convinced use we must have at this once-in-a-lifetime (once a year anyway) event. Of course, WalMart knows that there is only a limited supply of discounted items in this bait-and-switch extravaganza, and that the shopping veterans know it too; but make no effort at crowd control before opening the doors.

I've never been to one of these Black Friday events. The day after Thanksgiving has been a paid holiday for me for some time, and beforehand, I always took a vacation day. Thanksgiving, unlike the two looming on the horizon, is a laid-back holiday. No gifts, except maybe some wine. Lousy football thanks to the Lions. Just gather some family, share the cooking, and engage in a good rehashing of family grievances. The day after should be reserved for offering apologies, today made easier by text-messaging.

Why would anyone want to spend the day as part of an electronics-department free for all?

Oh wait, I need a Blackberry.

[steevyjeors]

Is anyone else disoriented by all the talk of today being "Cyber-Monday" the online shopper's equivalent of "Black Friday" where deals are extended to lure shoppers?

The whole concept -- a blatantly commercial conceit -- is repulsive to me.

Bah, HUMBUG!

I'm looking forward to "Rum-Nog-Friday" already.

[Aqgkvwzm]

Well, I need to do some shopping for my relatives kids.

Way too many of them to know what tehy all have, and, quite frankly, I really do not care!

Not that I do not like them! I like them very much, but I can't keep up with what their parents have already gotten them (more than I ever saw in my life) and I do not want to be the boring Uncle (Thanks for the sweater!!!).

Mff.

Anyway, this whole Black Friday thing miffles me. Growing up in Mall Country, I went a few times. But it was one time, maybe 10-15 years ago that stopped that. The parking was so bad that people were driving on the medians and lawns. Lines were rediculous, and it just was NOT worth it. I had never seen it that bad!

Ever since, consumerism seems not to have abated. This year being no different except for the fact that although just as many attended, less was bought.

Lets see how Wall Street panics at the announcement that everyone ALREADY KNEW was going to happen (low sales) and watch the DOW dip below 7000 in time for X-mas!

[Ruidselisse]

This is just so .... so... i don't know:
”

Crowd mentality. Trendiness. Fashion. Slack-jawed wonderment. Selfishness. You name it. It was represented here.

[MidwestMadman]

NY1

11/30/2008 05:15 PM

Queens Lawmaker Proposes Shopper Crowd Control Bill




A council member called for new legislation Sunday to protect store workers and shoppers, following the death of a Walmart employee on Black Friday.

Queens Councilman James Gennaro introduced a "Doorbuster Bill," which would require malls and large retailers to take appropriate security measures during so-called "doorbuster sales."

Measures include employing security personnel trained in crowd control and holding the retailers accountable for any injuries.

"These early morning, middle of the night crushes of shoppers are essentially street activities and they should be regulated," said Gennaro. "And there should be requirements put forth, which fortunately some retailers already observe and they have security personnel and they have crowd control. But some don't and we have to make sure that in every case that is the case."

The legislation was made in response to the death of Jimmy Damour, 34, of Queens, who died when roughly 2,000 bargain shoppers stampeded over him at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart on Black Friday.

Three shoppers at the store were also injured.



Copyright © 2008 NY1 News. All rights reserved.

[pageup85]

This is an incredible series of stories... just mind-boggling. The combination of and economy in crisis, people looking for bargains, and panicked retailers pushing the day as a result if needing to show holiday sales revenue ... and what else .... greed? callousness ?? Just outrageous

I did a black friday shopping morning once about 3 years ago to accommodate my niece who was in town and wanted to hit Macy's. I will never do it again. After 3 hours I was cooked... The experience was bad but of course nothing like this. It makes me very angry and very sad.