UPDATED: Wal-Mart employee dies on Black Friday after being knocked down by shoppers

** UPDATE: Wal-Mart just released an updated statement from Hank Mullany, a senior vice president and president of the company's Northeast division. It includes this passage: "We expected a large crowd this morning and added additional internal security, additional third party security, additional store associates and we worked closely with the Nassau County Police. We also erected barricades. Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred."

** UPDATE: A "personal dispute" at a Palm Desert Toys Us at 11:30 a.m. left two men dead from gunshot wounds. Read the full story here.

It's every Black Friday shopper's and security guard's worst nightmare.

Overeager shoppers jostling to get into a Wal-Mart on New York's Long Island trampled an employee to death this morning in the rush to snatch some good deals.

Also caught in that chaos at the Valley Stream, N.Y., store: a 28-year-old pregnant woman and at least three other shoppers who suffered minor injuries.

According to a police statement, the death happened at 5:03 a.m., minutes after Wal-Marts across the country opened their doors to the holiday rush.

The employee, a 34-year-old man, suffered "an undetermined death" when a "throng of shoppers ... physically broke down the doors, knocking him to the ground," according to the statement. He was declared dead at a nearby hospital at 6:03 a.m.

Wal-Mart was tight-lipped about the accident, saying in a statement that its officials are still working with Nassau County Police. The statement called the situation "tragic," added that the employee was working for a temporary agency and confirmed that several customers were also injured.

At a Best Buy in the Glendale area this morning, frustration and impatience caused several small fights to break out in the crowd before doors opened, according to police officers patrolling the front of the store.

--Tiffany Hsu

Comments

[luton]

"Wal Mart needs to be done away with. Brought down, torn apart, sold off and abolished. It is the ruination of this country."

What an ignorant remark. Wal-Mart provides more jobs than any business in this country. Their workers are paid and treated well, and they provide savings on everything for normal working people. BTW, check out their generic drug prices. AND they make a profit for their shareholders. You don't have a clue about business. Wal-Mart didn't kill the guy-people off the street didn't know how to act for God's sake stormed the doors and killed him. Get a clue or at least take a basic business course Idiot.

[Tdog]

Posted by: luton: What an ignorant remark. Wal-Mart provides more jobs than any business in this country. Their workers are paid and treated well..."

I stopped reading right there. Wal Mart's employees are notoriously overworked and underpaid. Anyone who complains or attempts to unionize is fired and replaced by someone more desperate for a job. This disaster could have been avoided if Wal Mart did a better job of organizing the event (like by handing out tickets for the popular items instead of encouraging people to stampede for them, for example)

Wal Mart's 'savings' also come out a cost, hurting small local businesses and encouraging outsourcing (more than 70% of the commodities sold in Wal-Mart are made in China). Wally's comments aren't nearly as ignorant as yours, so maybe it is you that should be re-taking the business course.

[vegasquixote]

BLACK FRIDAY
they stand in line
rubbing their hands together
in the cold wet morning
steam, rising from their gigantic mouths

gobs of turkey, stuffing, saliva, acid churning
not quite expelled, locked, into miles of intestines
foul gases squeaking, rising, drowned out
by holiday music, on the intercom
legs hands fists credit cards
fighting, for reduced
prices

as urchins aside dusty looms, machines, conveyor belts
ten thousand miles away, who do not know jesus
seem happy, to rest, for a few hours

[luton]

"Wal Mart's 'savings' also come out a cost, hurting small local businesses and encouraging outsourcing (more than 70% of the commodities sold in Wal-Mart are made in China). Wally's comments aren't nearly as ignorant as yours, so maybe it is you that should be re-taking the business course. "

I doubt that. Nobody's forced at the point of a gun to work at W-M. I grew up in a small town and watched some of those "small local businesses" screw their employees for thirty years, then toss them aside like used condoms. Oh and BTW, if it can be made cheaper and better in China, what's wrong with that? That helps working people too.

[Ron]

When the rest of the world hears about this Black Friday event, they will think even less of American consumers and our completely irrational obssession with materialistic objects. We are brainwashed into believing we need to spend, spend and spend more. Everyone is spoiled and expects to lead extravagant lifestyles beyond their means. This inherent "me first" attitude is what causes people to push, shove, and storm their way through to find crazy deals and ultimately causing the poor man's death. Basic courtesy and decency are thrown out the window especially when people can shop like maniacs. I'm sure Walmart had safeguards in place, but obviously it wasn't enough. Lawsuits are not the answer as this country is flooded with too much litigation. Retailers need to learn from this and prevent it from ever happening again. Stupid, tragic and senseless.

[rmb74]

How can anyone blame Wal Mart? Hello, THEY broke the doors off the hinges. Criminals, call those people anything but human. I am shocked that anyone would just walk over someone that was knocked to the floor. I am so ashamed and saddened. I wouldn't step anywhere near a shopping center on "Black Friday". My life is more important than saving a couple bucks. Although the murder of this innocent person may be isolated, crap like this was happening all over the place today. Any person out there reading this who actually stood in line for hours, mobbed and pushed their way past others to get at a Sale item should be ashamed of themselves for acting like an animal. Hell why insult the animals...low lifes. Make sure to tell your kids on Christmas morning that you had to kill someone to get them the gift they begged for.......I'm glad I won't have that on my conscience. Happy Holidays!

[Peggy]

This, in a nutshell, is why I no longer celebrate Christmas. This "holiday" has nothing to do with Christ, religion, celebrating humanity or anything of the sort. It has become a ritualistic orgy of consumption. Buying, spending, leveraging ever more debt in order to spend money we don't have on things we don't need. If someone gets in the way of the deranged consumers, taht person is trampled to death. A door was torn off it's hinges, an innocent man was killed. For what? So someone could get an off brand television for a couple bucks off.

[DaWolfe]

WHO DA WHAT DA F IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE????
I mean really, think about this. Where does this greed stem from? Break free people, wtf are people stampeding for? Were they handing out rice so a father can feed his family and keep them from starvation? Are we really so sick? Our culture has begun to breed some scary minds and it's up to each of us to TEACH our children, friends, family about the true meaning of life. LEARN, LOVE and have FUN, sounds good right, well wtf is keeping us from enjoying such simple things? Are we really so consumed with these insignificant items that we would put others in harms way to obtain them, selfish selfish selfish. It's a sad, sad day and I am weeping inside for more reason than I can even explain.

Quit buying crap and enjoy what you have.

[Lexi]

I work for a Wal-Mart in Upstate New York. I found out what happened to that poor man as I showed up for work Friday night, and was sickened by it. I am an overnight associate, and had a chance to see firsthand how crazy black friday shoppers are. Yes, while it is DEFINATELY the fault of those insane, gotta save a buck shoppers for the death of that poor innocent employee, Wal-Mart and all the other retailers that have those must have black friday specials that put shoppers in "frenzy mode" have to take responsibility for this as well. There has to be a better way for shoppers to save money as well as give the retailers the opportunity to make their black friday millions than to put innocent people at risk. Those of us that have to work black friday start stressing about this months before hand, and it all has to stop. Oh and by the way, I don't know about the store where the poor man that lost his life worked, but my store does Not put on extra security, and they do have extra employees on staff that night, but not for security reasons.........it's just for the sake of "guarding the merchandise" until the sale starts............sad.

[Walleyworldsux]

"Quit buying crap and enjoy what you have."

Yeah, my hubby and I opted not to go to the local Walmart. His sister has been working at Walmart for years and has to live in government housing in order to afford to keep her and her family off the streets. It is a small town, and the Walmart pretty much wiped out all of the other businesses.

I have a feeling the ignoramus going on about the lovely wonders of Walmart is probably some brown-nosing PR person trying to stop the tide from turning.

As for the tragic death, it is both the responsibility of Walmart AND the responsibility of the people who trampled the poor man. Walmart cuts corners everywhere they can, they don't even NEED a black Friday to keep sales going, so what is the point? Its like the stupid oil companies that are freaking out about us going green and are finally dropping oil prices. Its all about the bottom line.

And personally, I think anyone who thinks a tickle me Elmo is worth trampling someone to death needs to go to jail.

Happy Holidays!

[Inverse137]

To Sara:

It is very sad what happened. And to the loser that mentioned Americans.....if you are not one and are living here in our country why don't you go back to yours. Do you live in one of those lovely countries where they attack one another in the streets throwing rocks and bottles at each other? I bet you do!

Posted by: Sara | November 28, 2008 at 03:22 PM

----------------------------------------------------------

Which rock throwing, attack each other place might you be referring to? Compton, East Palo Alto, Detroit, New York, any big city in america?

Go back where I came from? Oh, I wish I could, believe me. I have been embarrassed to be an american for 6 years now. Who can blame me? With a president that sees the very document we live and die to defend as more a guideline than law and one who invades a country under false pretenses....well, you know the story.

We have an economic meltdown because too many americans are incapable of thinking for themselves and need instant gratification with trinkets. They spend way beyond their means and do not save.

Yeah, I would love to get back where I came from but unfortunately the 90s are over and we are now in the post-bush-era and have a recession and economic collapse to deal with.

So go ahead and defend the "americans" that trampled someone to death that was trying to earn an honest living..go ahead. Then let's see who the "loser" is.

[Cindy Garcia]

This is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard!! Wal Mart and only Wal Mart is responsible for this man's death and the injuries sustained by their customers. I can't believe they are actually trying to free themselves of the responsiblity. They should have had more security guards and they should have trained their employees to handle a mob like this. My God the management at this store should have taken precautions to avoid this stampede. This story is incredible and the worst of the human spirit is being displayed here. I refuse to shop at Wal Mart not only do they not protect their employees most of them earn under poverty line wages income. The only ones getting rich her folks are the owners of Wal Mart. Do yourselves a favor and DO NOT SHOP THERE!!!!

[Daphne]

We are saving a dollar at Wal Mart while they underpay their employees. They keep their employees schedules under 34 hours a week which consitutes part time and that makes them ineligible for benefits. So where do these Wal Mart employees get their heath coverage? MEDI-CAL, yes people our tax dollars pay for the health insurance of the underpaid Wal Mart employee. How do these under paid employees feed their families? FOOD STAMPS, yes people or tax dollars feed these Wal Mart employees and their families. They are also eligible for Cal Works you know aid for dependent children. Yes, people our tax dollars are being exploited by Wal Mart. While we are having trouble making ends meet the owners and upper management of Wal Mart are making money hand over fist on our tax dollars. It is time to say enough is enough to Wal Mart and the only way to do that is not to shop there!!! The death of this employee speaks volumes about Wal Mart lack of concern for the safety of their employees. I wish they would devulge how many employees were there and how many security guards were there to protect the employees and the public!! They say they worked closely with Nassau Police, WHAT!!! The police should have been called when the crowd swelled into the thousands. Come on Wal Mart be honest. I wish you would all stop shopping there and maybe just maybe they will do the moral thing and provide the basic benefits for their employees so we as Americans don't have too.

[Chris]

This comment was posted by UJ "I was there when this happened. Actually i am employee. I really feel sorry for what happened. That man used to work with me. It was really a great lost. But over here i wanna add one thing that i feel no sorry for that pregnant woman or for those people who brought their 7 yrs old kids with them. What were they thinking? Didn't they know that that is not the right place for such kind of people?????? Posted by: UJ" You are kidding right? First of all your grammer, and punctuation leaves alot to be desired. I don't want to be rude but really your comment your shows your lack of education and your ignorance. What do you mean when you say "that is not the right place for such kind of people" I thought Wal Mart was the right place for all people! One must expect a store will protect them when they enter it. Let me ask why Wal Mart has so many cameras outside their stores? Is it for the protection of the store or the customers in the parking lot? I hope you say both because anything less would be a travesty. I disagree with you and I agree with the previous posts that state Wal Mart is the responsible party here. I hope all those injured people sue Wal Mart and get compensated for their injuries.

[Omar]

First of all, it was a great tragedy for that person and that person's family. i prey God bless his soul. People stop fighting among urself and stop point faults in amoung u. Atleast u are the people who really agree at a point. u all feel bad about the person who died yet u guys fight and argue and try to make ur point. e.g By Chris " First of all your grammer, and punctuation leaves alot to be desired. " i mean does it really matter??...that is not the topic at hand. what is, is that there is an innocent person dead. whose death we all are accounted for. if u have ever, not in just a wal-mart store, shopped like a crazy head, wanted something soo bad that u didn't see wat comes in ur way....then my friend u r to blame as well. as someone else said above....we need to stop being to obsessed with material things. And if u blame wal-mart for hosting a black friday sale. well its a business and its their to make money. yes sure we all hate them for taking over all those small businesses but its business and thats what business is....if ur a businessman then u want ur business to be the best and the only business people would like to go deal with.
But we have to understand this important part. These businesses abuse us. they will. because all they care about is that we come shop from them, they don't care about our safety....but they care that we remain this materialistic being, who just simply want to get anything thats up for a sale. even if a rotten/dirty/ugly but expensive item is marked down...we'll buy it...just to display to our neighbor...look @ it, bought this expensive thing. its mostly show. we need to change our habbits. I mean if its this bad right now....its gonna get worse. what are we teaching our children...that u shove and push and get what u want. that for everything u wanna get would have to come at some cost better make it cost of someone else's loss??...i have been prejudged ever since i have been here. I am from Pakistan, bet u all heard alot....and alot of u would come up with comments and things to say about me. it doesn't matter. i have been told things on my face and this post wouldn't affect me any more. its the same over here as over there.
People tend not to give a S**T about others but only to themselves. I don't have any family over here, so on my birthday 4 yrs ago...i went out and passes around sandwiches to homeless people and each and every homeless that i gave that sandwich to, looked at me strange, and they would ask whats this, why are u giving it to me, smell it, just take a little bit off it to check as if suspecting me on poising them. Its because they learned. no one gives. EVERY1 takes. So people change that. u can. i can't.
alot of people ask me when i tell them i am from Pakistan, why do all these people hate Americans or don't like Americans. i tell them that they like u as much as u like them. If u don't care about someone, how do u expect them to care about u??....if they see and hear what is told to them, then so do u. i mean if they are killing people there, what about here?... oh just because its a gang fight or shoot out, cuz we are used to those terms, it doesn't count as extremisum?....we all tend to justify ourselves. but not the acts of others. We tend to grasp a piece of string from one end but never care whats on the other end.
People. open up ur eyes. we are being currupted by the society and the media. I mean u care about how much they hate u over there but u don't care about how much ur neighbor, co worker might hate u, who is actually here.
My nanny told me, if someone does bad to u don't do them more bad or bad at all. cuz it will generate more bad(evil if u may want to call it). She said do them good. and when u do, they might do u bad but u just keep doing good and they will eventually learn.
She said its easy for bad to defeat good. but it takes alot of good to defeat just a little bit of bad.
remember all the things u do, ur kids learn from them and do the same. teach the children love for all, not just Americans or America. If we don't think for others how do we expect them to think for us?....someone's got to put out a friendly had first inorder for return of another. This is a Global issue... and if u guys think that ur Americans and ur great. Show some greatness and kindness. otherwise people will mock us of being so materialistic. cuz over there noone fights over materials like we do over here. we need global help and understanding of things. why this happened in what part of history that triggered this part in history. world history.
I know all this is not even related to the topic here. but the theme is same. we need to change....and we have the power to change. i mean thats why we are leaving comments here right. or is it something thats never gonna be heard and just there for us to feel some relief......people stop blaming each other. look in ur own collar first. we don't do that these days cuz we all tend to think ourselves as more informed, education, and better in all ways.

In the end i would like all of u to just, pray for the dead, and ask for peace in his family's life, and for blessing upon all of us....who are here, who think that he was an innocent man, a victim.
God bless this world. Amen.

[Doug]

Wow what is up with people today. are they serious about this BS that people decide it's time for a mad rush for friggin gifts. i think next time we need to have riot police beat the cred outta people who RUN in the store or PUSH. seriously, didn't their parents teach them to WALK inside the shopping center?

[Monty]

To Inverse137: Please quit your belly-aching about "Americans" being the cause of all this. Have you spent a significant amount of time in any other country? I seriously doubt it. If you had, you would know that the obesession for consumable goods is not isolated to America: IT'S THE HUMAN CONDITION. Just look at the films of Japanese teenagers falling all over each other to get the latest video game in Akihabara, or rich Russians buying diamond-encrusted silverware just because they can. People will always want to express themselves through obtaining objects (preferably at good prices). Whether or not this is a moral way to live your life is another issue... That's just it: being American isn't a single stereotype: we are allowed to live how we want, believe what we want, and buy what we want. You obviously haven't been to a nation where the government dictates these things (I have), so please remain from making ignorant generalizations that demean every man, woman, and child in all 50 states just because you have a grudge against the worldwide phenomenon that is consumerism.

[Orlando]

Can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs

[KS]

Shame on Walmart for and aggressive shoppers for killing this man last year!!! I hope all aggressive shoppers get arrested this year!!!!!!!!!!!!