Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death by Mob of Shoppers

By Matthew B. Zeidman

VALLEY STREAM, N.Y. (RushPRnews/Hollywood Today)11/30/08 – The post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy known as Black Friday became a testament to greed, callousness and indifference yesterday morning, when a seasonal worker at a Long Island Wal-Mart was killed by a crush of ravenous shoppers unwilling to wait for the store’s official opening.

According to The New York Times, the mob that gathered outside the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y. rushed the store’s main entrance at 4:55 a.m., knocking the glass doors off their tracks and shattering them. Store employee Jdimytai Damour was knocked to the ground and run over by the mass of shoppers who were later forced to leave the store by police.

Damour, 34, was given emergency treatment at the scene, but pronounced dead at nearby Franklin Hospital Medical Center. Police were in the process of reviewing the store’s security tapes and attempting to identify the individuals involved.

The Times reported that the crowd of 2,000 began lining up at 9:00 p.m. on Thursday. Nassau County Detective Lt. Michael Fleming told the publication that Wal-Mart’s inadequate security force contributed to the “utter chaos” that caused Damour’s death.

Far removed from the relaxation and feasting that characterize Thanksgiving in the United States, Black Friday has become an testament to the commerciality of the holiday season, with shoppers sometimes lining up the night before stores open, in order to take advantage of “door buster” deals only available that morning.