Police Eying Wal-Mart Trample Video
Could Charge NY Shoppers Who Stampeded A Long Island Store, Killing Worker
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Video
Store Worker Trampled, Dies
"Caught On Tape": A worker at a Wal-Mart in Nassau County, N.Y. was given CPR after reportedly being trampled on by a throng of shoppers who broke down store doors. The unidentified man was later pronounced dead.
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Photo
This still image from cell-phone video obtained by WCBS shows the unidentified Wal-Mart worker before he was transported to a hospital. (WCBS)
Criminal charges were possible, but identifying individual shoppers in Friday's video may prove difficult, said Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, a Nassau County police spokesman.
Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers stepped over him and became irate when officials said the store was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.
At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries. The store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.
Police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the Wal-Mart doors before its 5 a.m. opening at a mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the employee, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour, to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.
"This crowd was out of control," Fleming said. He described the scene as "utter chaos," and said the store didn't have enough security.
Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help Damour were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store.
Damour, 34, of Queens, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 6 a.m., police said. The exact cause of death has not been determined.
A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, where she and the baby were reported to be OK, said police Sgt. Anthony Repalone.
Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."
"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling `I've been on line since yesterday morning,"' she said. "They kept shopping."
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a "tragic situation" and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store. It said it tried to prepare for the crowd by adding staffers and outside security workers, putting up barricades and consulting police.
"Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred," senior Vice President Hank Mullany said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those impacted."
A woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in Farmingdale, about 15 miles east of Valley Stream, Suffolk County police said. She suffered minor injuries, but finished shopping before filling the report, police said.
Shoppers around the country line up early outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving in the annual bargain-hunting ritual known as Black Friday. It got that name because it has historically been the day when stores broke into profitability for the full year.
Items on sale at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart included a Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $798, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as "The Incredible Hulk" for $9.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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See all 248 CommentsPosted by earache4 at 09:18 AM : Nov 29, 2008
I hear they where all black...perhaps they need to look at the black culture of materialism
Who released the surveillance tape to the press? hmmm....
Posted by Glidescube at 09:40 AM
There is nothing humane about humanity, regardless of ethnicity. Never has been. Never will be.
Perhaps the police should also be looking at the video of the the Walmart corporate board room. After all, the upper management of Walmart (and Target and Circuit City, etc) have been exploiting the greed of the thundering herds for years, urging them on with promises of big sales for those who get there first on Black Friday. They encourage people to camp out in front of their stores on Thanksgiving night to get the best deals. They love having the local news crews show up and photograph people lined up and/or camping at their stores (it is free advertising, after all). Some stores even advertise "door buster" sales. It was only a matter of time before something like this had to happen.
All of these day after Thanksgiving greed festivals are disgusting. Walmart Corporation could show its concern for Mr. Damour by vowing from now on to only operate their stores normally on the day after Thanksgiving, but I doubt if that is going to happen...
Go suck one!!
Posted by Glidescube at 09:40 AM
Your sheet is showing
Posted by Glidescube at 09:40 AM
Hmmm! Does that bit of false information make you feel better? Does it stroke your ego? Or, maybe because they call it "black Friday" you think that it meant only "black people" were there. Well, tell me this - Is there anyplace in the US where a Wal-Mart only have black shoppers or for that matter is put up in an all black neighborhood? Are we to beleive that the hispanics, whites and other stood by calmly and in control while the "blacks" pushed their way in? Not a snowball chance in h**! Or in your case, a White sheet staying clean in a mudstorm. State your source please, and dont tell me from a friend of a friend''s cousin or some ***. Before you release your bullsh*t you should verify the source. All black my a$$, the only thing they have in common is they were all greedy for artificial sales and didnt give a *** about human life to get to them. Eliminate "black Friday" and that will stop this.
intelligence. Just goes to show you "stupidity" is
an "across the board" thing, not racial!
My sister was trampled at disneyland some years ago by a white crowd.
What would you call that?
CBS, please remove this video. It''s the higher ground in this case.
CBS, please remove this video. It''''s the higher ground in this case.
Posted by corkscr3w at 12:05 PM : Nov 29, 2008
NO! Leave it there, CBS. It belongs there. Let people see the truth; what the neo-liberal, socialized Amerika, a country without a moral compass, has become. Let the fat-*ssed PhD''s, with hyphenated names see what their social engineering has accomplished. Shove it in their faces. They''ve earned it.
"The video should be removed. It is disturbing to hear the commentary in the background, and the woman laughing.... Sickening. "
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Personally, I wish they would make this video a mandatory requirement for EVERYONE to see! I work as a Paramedic....and it absolutely astounds me...how people today can be so heartless and uncaring about other humans!
Wasnt long ago....we were called to aid a victim of cardiac arrest...at a local fast food restuarant. Believe it or not....we had to call for police backup for crowd control...to keep people from stepping over the man''s body...while we were still trying to resuscitate him! What a sad commentary on people in America....when getting to the counter to order a cheeseburger and fries....is more important that another person''s life! ( Side note....We DID manage to revive this victim and he managed to survive for two more weeks before a second heart attack took his life)
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Posted by Kk217 at 11:43 AM : Nov 29, 2008
very true anyone who has ever been to long island knows it is not as someone posted here earlier a "black area" i dont think it makes a diffrence what color they are the man was still stampeded to death i dont think his family cares what "color" they are
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