I Love My Little Island

[Bones]

Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede

BY JOE GOULD
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Updated Friday, November 28th 2008, 9:30 AM
A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said.
The unidentified worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.
Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.
"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too...I literally had to fight people off my back."
Nassau County Police are still investigating and would not confirm the witness accounts. The Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death. Police did say there were several injuries but weren't more specific.
Jessica Keyes was among the shoppers. She told the Daily News she saw a woman knocked down just a few feet from the dying worker.
"When the paramedics came, she said 'I'm pregnant,'" Keyes said.
Paramedics treated the woman inside the store and then, according to Keys, told the woman:
"There's nothing we can do. The baby is gone."
Before police shut down the store, eager shoppers streamed past emergency crews as they worked furiously to save the store clerk's life.
"They were working on him, but you could see he was dead, said Halcyon Alexander, 29. "People were still coming through."
Only a few stopped.
"They're savages," said shopper Kimberly Cribbs, 27. "It's sad. It's terrible."

[BarneyFife]

That's just sad.

[scottlr]

Craziness! :jo Every year there's stories like this one. I have NEVER gone shopping for anything except food and guitar strings on Black Friday.

[kovachian]

Oh no. I'd lock the store up and take down the name of every last shopper in the store. That way when the lawsuits start rolling in, I could hand over the list of likely guilty parties and be like, "here ya go, knock yourself out".

[Bones]

People tell me I'm a party pooper because i stay off the roads and out of the big stores this time of year.

[scottlr]

So do I, Sean. Not a party pooper, a smart person.

[BarneyFife]

Oh no. I'd lock the store up and take down the name of every last shopper in the store. That way when the lawsuits start rolling in, I could hand over the list of likely guilty parties and be like, "here ya go, knock yourself out".

You're right, but the family of the guy killed will sue the store. When it's not even the stores fault.

[mge80]

I wouldn't be caught dead (no poor taste pun intended) out shopping today. Especially for any of these before dawn openings.

I'll just sit here at home, thank you. There is nothing I want or need that badly. Besides, I bought the one Christmas gift I am buying this year online...yesterday.

[Midnight Lady]

People tell me I'm a party pooper because i stay off the roads and out of the big stores this time of year.

So do I, Sean. Not a party pooper, a smart person.Allow me to join the ranks of smart party poopers. NOT going into a store today. How terrible for the man's family.

[Bones]

You're right, but the family of the guy killed will sue the store. When it's not even the stores fault.


The store is at least to some degree responsible for allowing the crowds to build up outside the door and not have an adequate means of controlling the flow and protecting their employees. 200 people can easily be controlled if you want to control them, however the stores like to build up the excitement and sense of urgency. Of course Wal-mart will think nothing of spending a million dollars on legal fees to fight the man's family and keep them from getting a penny.

[cram]

I don't understand the benefit of dealing with this sort of hassle. I wonder the real benefits in terms of cost. are people really netting a savings compared to prices found a week later on the very same products? And - are they purchasing enough so the savings justifies the hassle.

for the last 7 years approximately 80% of my shopping is done on my computer.

[Bones]

I don't understand the benefit of dealing with this sort of hassle. I wonder the real benefits in terms of cost. are people really netting a savings compared to prices found a week later on the very same products? And - are they purchasing enough so the savings justifies the hassle.

for the last 7 years approximately 80% of my shopping is done on my computer.

nothing can match the savings that i am experiencing rigt now.

[Stew]

Oh no. I'd lock the store up and take down the name of every last shopper in the store. That way when the lawsuits start rolling in, I could hand over the list of likely guilty parties and be like, "here ya go, knock yourself out".

The store is responsible for this. They incited the people to riot by hyping their sale. Way to go Walmart!

[mge80]

They incited the people to riot by hyping their sale. Way to go Walmart!

I am certain that Walmart is not the only retailer to "incite" the people to riot by hyping their sales. What retailer did NOT hype their 4 or 5 am Friday sales? The whole concept is insane..

Best Buy in Apple Valley, MN...

http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/640*440/BLACK1128-2black1128.jpg

[Bones]

I am certain that Walmart is not the only retailer to "incite" the people to riot by hyping their sales. What retailer did NOT hype their 4 or 5 am Friday sales? The whole concept is insane..

Best Buy in Apple Valley, MN...

http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/640*440/BLACK1128-2black1128.jpg

Sadly, this probably wont be the only incident like this during the holiday season.

[BluesForDan]

Allow me to join the ranks of smart party poopers. NOT going into a store today. How terrible for the man's family.

Likewise. I drove from Westerly, RI to NH last night, coming home from my aunt's house. There's no room to stay at her place, the hotels are really summer rooms = cold and moldy & stupid money. We drove by the Wrentham exit on I-95, which leads to the (in)famous factory outlet stores that are habitually crammed beyond belief on this day. Mind you, this was at about 10:30 on thanksgiving evening, and there were already police cars, and 4 miles of barrier sticks and traffic cones to limit the right lane to cars going to the stores.

It gets backed up every year, and selfish, me-first types would zoom past the stopped cars and try to cut in just before the exit. Of course, they have to stop in the middle lane, where traffic is trying to do the speed limit. Road rage and accidents every year because of these pinheads. About 15 years ago, I stayed overnight and drove back the next day. The interstate was a parking lot for miles and miles before this exit, with bozos staying in the far left lane, thinking they could just cut across 3 lanes of traffic and get off at the exit only a few hundred feet ahead. Never, ever again.

This was the first time I've ever seen them do this with the barriers. 4 miles !!! It must have taken many trucks and hours of overtime (holiday, probably triple or quadruple pay) to do this. I'll get a report from my sister if it worked or not later today.

I have no desire to go anywhere, except somebody used a lot of my half&half for cooking, and I just barely have enough for today's coffee. I might walk a mile in the rain to the grocery store, and try to get some for tomorrow morning. Otherwise, I'd stay inside.

My condolences to anybody who has to work retail today. Been there, done that. As god is my witness, never again if I can absolutely help it.

[TNJ]

Kinda like the Who concert in Cincy back in the day.

Crazy...

S.
j

[Bones]

Kinda like the Who concert in Cincy back in the day.

Crazy...

S.
j


Yeah, but at least they learned their lesson and banned "festival" seating. These store riots happen every year and they never change their policies.

[Frankee]

I'm going to go ahead and say it.........



Idiots.

[phoenix 7]

'Tis the season.

Seriously, the last place you'll see me on Black Friday is a STORE!

[Luke]

Collateral damage so they could save $3 on a Tickle me Elmo Cabbage Patch Doll

[Jon Silberman]

This is horrific, sad, and wrong but remember exactly why we're discussing it now: it may not be the only incident of its kind this holiday season but is it the exception.

[TNJ]

Yeah, but at least they learned their lesson and banned "festival" seating. These store riots happen every year and they never change their policies.

Only one venue...but I guess that is better than nothing.

Until it happens again.


S.
j

[jaycee]

This story sure says a lot about those people, eh? Every year there's a Filene's Basement store in Boston that has their annual wedding dress sale. Beautiful, brand-name dresses dirt cheap. They have some cutsie name for the sale, i can't remember what it is, but they show footage on the news. Women tackling eachother, fistfights, screaming.....I may go next year.

[imonabuss]

Right, the store is to blame. My God, what the hell ever happened to personal responsibility. Every a**hole that pushed and shoved their way made a choice. Animals if we don't take responsibility for our actions.

[XKnight]

The horror that is Black Friday.

[BluesForDan]

This story sure says a lot about those people, eh? Every year there's a Filene's Basement store in Boston that has their annual wedding dress sale. Beautiful, brand-name dresses dirt cheap. They have some cutsie name for the sale, i can't remember what it is, but they show footage on the news. Women tackling eachother, fistfights, screaming.....I may go next year.

It is called "The Running of the Brides", after the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

[StevenS]

Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede

BY JOE GOULD
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Updated Friday, November 28th 2008, 9:30 AM
A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said.
The unidentified worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.
Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.
"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too...I literally had to fight people off my back."
Nassau County Police are still investigating and would not confirm the witness accounts. The Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death. Police did say there were several injuries but weren't more specific.
Jessica Keyes was among the shoppers. She told the Daily News she saw a woman knocked down just a few feet from the dying worker.
"When the paramedics came, she said 'I'm pregnant,'" Keyes said.
Paramedics treated the woman inside the store and then, according to Keys, told the woman:
"There's nothing we can do. The baby is gone."
Before police shut down the store, eager shoppers streamed past emergency crews as they worked furiously to save the store clerk's life.
"They were working on him, but you could see he was dead, said Halcyon Alexander, 29. "People were still coming through."
Only a few stopped.
"They're savages," said shopper Kimberly Cribbs, 27. "It's sad. It's terrible."


This is a true story??!! It actually happened??

I was scrolling down the thread waiting for someone to expose it as a joke in poor taste or something.

Unbelievable....

[FlyingDutchman]

People are crazy...This seems like Wal-marts fault to a certain degree because they didnt organize the crowd and keep things under control.

[Barefoot]

In years to come how do you explain, with any degree of dignity, your father went to his great reward after being trampled by the crowds trying to get into Walmart? Friggin' WALMART....

It's like getting run over by a run away garbage dumpster....

[dave r.]

This has similarities to opening day of hunting season.

[Randy]

Pics here;

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/galleries/walmart_stampede_captured_in_pictures/walmart_stampede_captured_in_pictures.html

[Luke]

WalMart is at fault because it happened on their property, period.

If you come to my home uninvited and slip and fall on my steps and hurt yourself it is MY FAULT because it happened on my property.

If you fall from an airplane and bounce off my roof and are injured, I should have foreseen the potential problem and had my roof padded appropriately for just such an occasion.

[gtrshow]

What an insanely consumer obsessed society we've become. God forbid a human life be allowed to stand in the way of a good bargain. Condolences to the man's (and woman's) family and friends. Black Friday indeed.

[Luke]

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/11/29/gal_walmart_stampede_08.jpg

"BLITZ" line? That won't play well in court, settle this afternoon WalMart.

[Hendrix99]

Human trash. Period. Anyone that would run over another human being to save a few bucks on an item at Walmart doesn't have any worth in this world. They should have taken all names at that store and sorted things out after the store security tapes were reviewed. Sure, that crappy store has some responsibility, but so do the people who saw a human lying on the floor and chose to run over them.

[dave r.]

WalMart is at fault because it happened on their property, period.
Well, it certainly isn't the fault of the people who pushed and shoved until someone was trampled.

[eBay]

What a sad death. Of all the ways to go, perhaps the most ignoble.

[Flyin' Brian]

Allow me to join the ranks of smart party poopers. NOT going into a store today. How terrible for the man's family.

What??? You're not buying MY present today?

Seriously there's no way I'd go near any stores. The original story is such as shame. Condolences to the man's family and to the woman who lost her child. It's the same (non) mentality that has caused tragedy at general admission rock shows in the past.

[James]

Senseless, needless, preventable tragedy. Both the store and the anxious customers bear responsibility. It's so sad that we have become so materialistic as a society. Perhaps that's the way it's always been, and this type of event merely exposes it. I don't know. I think we put entirely too much emphasis on material possessions, wealth and I include myself in that observation.

Thoughts and prayers to the victim, his friends and family.

:(:(:(:(

I agree that they should have taken steps to get everyone's identity at the scene.

[Stew]

Human trash. Period. Anyone that would run over another human being to save a few bucks on an item at Walmart doesn't have any worth in this world. They should have taken all names at that store and sorted things out after the store security tapes were reviewed. Sure, that crappy store has some responsibility, but so do the people who saw a human lying on the floor and chose to run over them.

I wouldn't be so hard on the individuals. Once the crowd tightens up and gets momentum, there isn't anything an individual can do but to move with the crowd. I was at a Who concert in Springfield MA just before the one where the people got killed. I was about half way in the line outside. When the line started moving I was walking normally with room around me. As we got closer the crowd tightened up and by the time I got to the door I was squished like a sardine from the people around me. I was sort of lifted so I was tippy toeing along. It was hard to draw a breath. If someone had gone down in front of me, the momentum would have carried me right over them, there would have been absolutely nothing I could do.

[Bones]

Senseless, needless, preventable tragedy. Both the store and the anxious customers bear responsibility. It's so sad that we have become so materialistic as a society. Perhaps that's the way it's always been, and this type of event merely exposes it. I don't know. I think we put entirely too much emphasis on material possessions, wealth and I include myself in that observation.

Thoughts and prayers to the victim, his friends and family.

:(:(:(:(

I agree that they should have taken steps to get everyone's identity at the scene.


well to be fair, it also happens in poor countries during religious pilgrimages and still in other countries during sporting events. i don't think any "culture" is immune from these type of things when a large group gets excited, no matter the reason

[Hendrix99]

I wouldn't be so hard on the individuals. Once the crowd tightens up and gets momentum, there isn't anything an individual can do but to move with the crowd. I was at a Who concert in Springfield MA just before the one where the people got killed. I was about half way in the line outside. When the line started moving I was walking normally with room around me. As we got closer the crowd tightened up and by the time I got to the door I was squished like a sardine from the people around me. I was sort of lifted so I was tippy toeing along. It was hard to draw a breath. If someone had gone down in front of me, the momentum would have carried me right over them, there would have been absolutely nothing I could do.


Sure, maybe that is true for the people stuck in the middle, but the douchebags in the front that start that crap and the people in the back that keep pushing are not innocent. They are greedy, careless people who deserve to be prosecuted.

[smiert spionam]

Walmart may well profit from it. They've long had a policy of holding secret life insurance policies on their employees, called "dead peasant" policies. Increasingly illegal (and definitely ghoulish) -- I don't know if NY still allows them.

[Luke]

Sure, maybe that is true for the people stuck in the middle, but the douchebags in the front that start that crap and the people in the back that keep pushing are not innocent. They are greedy, careless people who deserve to be prosecuted.

Please explain how you will determine which of the say 2,000 people go to jail and which do not? Surely everyone will say they were caught in the wave and are thus innocent. How can the DA prove beyond a reasonable doubt any one person is lying? Don't forget to factor in jury nullification where each juror will think to himself, this could have been me or my family on trial.

[James]

well to be fair, it also happens in poor countries during religious pilgrimages and still in other countries during sporting events. i don't think any "culture" is immune from these type of things when a large group gets excited, no matter the reason

Good point. I agree. I was just discussing this with some of my co-workers and brought up that point as well.

[soulohio]

i don'r believe i have actually seen anybody poop at a party...but hey if that's your thing i say go for it...used to know a guy that paid good money to have ladies pee on him...is that what this is aboot?

by the way, he said it was cause he had jellyfish stings and pee made him feel betters...

[wstsidela]

Animals, I tell ya. They should have locked the doors and gassed everyone in the Walmart.

[stratzrus]

The store is at least to some degree responsible for allowing the crowds to build up outside the door and not have an adequate means of controlling the flow and protecting their employees.
:agree

[bluestrat62]

hmmm...let's see here. TEN employees lining the glass doors that are beginning to buckle because of a crowd of 200 crazed shoppers. Don't you think a supervisor or manager should have seen the possibilities here???

[stevieboy]

Of course Wal Mart is responsible. It's up to them to set up a system of crowd control that prevents a stampede.

I'm not a Wal Mart hater, but it's not like stores haven't experienced big crowds rushing the door on Black Friday in the past, they should have anticipated a dangerous situation (as all stores should.) Really shouldn't be that difficult to realize, or create and execute a plan for that matter.

[TommyGuitar]

What happened makes me sick.

[Hendrix99]

Please explain how you will determine which of the say 2,000 people go to jail and which do not? Surely everyone will say they were caught in the wave and are thus innocent. How can the DA prove beyond a reasonable doubt any one person is lying? Don't forget to factor in jury nullification where each juror will think to himself, this could have been me or my family on trial.

Not sure about the whole crowd or the technical legal aspects, but they may be able to see the person who plowed the employee over and kept on going. Seems that person should be responsible.

[Greggy]

Come on now, admit it. Y'all would be trampling each other silly over a limited Dumble amp sale at Best Buy. I could see it now, crashing the doors at 3:59 a.m. with bated breath and excited eyes.

[The Pipast]

i don'r believe i have actually seen anybody poop at a party...but hey if that's your thing i say go for it...used to know a guy that paid good money to have ladies pee on him...is that what this is aboot?

by the way, he said it was cause he had jellyfish stings and pee made him feel betters... :confused:...and this has what to do with a man losing his life because of a bunch of selfish,greedy < animals? :huh

[Luke]

Not sure about the whole crowd or the technical legal aspects, but they may be able to see the person who plowed the employee over and kept on going. Seems that person should be responsible.

And the angle of this single video is going to be so precise it will clearly demonstrate that the first person to make contact had open space behind them and thus could not in turn say they were pushed?

There was a guy on the NY News last night that was there and up front, he said that there had been some verbal confrontation between the dead employee and some of the people. Even with that, I find it difficult to prosecute and win, UNLESS the theory for the DA is that those up front are poor and thus will not be able to afford competent representation. However due to the national coverage of this story, one would expect an ACLU guy like Ron Cuby, who resides in NYC, to take up the cause then.

There will be no criminal case IMO, and if there is, I've outlined why it will fail. The cops at the scene can say anything, they do not determine how the DA selects to spend the county's money.

My prediction is WalMart pays out $500,000 if the guy was married with kids, $200,000 if he was just married, and $50,000 if he was single to compensate siblings. Without the national media coverage cut these numbers in half.

[Hendrix99]

And the angle of this single video is going to be so precise it will clearly demonstrate that the first person to make contact had open space behind them and thus could not in turn say they were pushed?



I don't know. I'm not a lawyer and not here to argue the technicalities of this situation (I'll leave that for the lawyers). All I am saying is that the video MAY show something. Someone shoving the employee, pushing someone else into the employee, etc. And yes, that person should be held responsible if the evidence clearly shows them to have caused the accident. I am also NOT saying that Walmart does not share responsibility. All I'm saying is that the video should be looked at. Sure, it may be useless.

None of us were there, so all of this is speculation including any predictions on settlements and whether or not charges will be be filed against individuals or the corporation. Time will tell. And sadly, something similar will probably happen again in the future given human nature and greed.