Shopping Maul (New York Post)

November 30, 2008

Taylor K. Vecsey, Carolyn Salazar and Lukas I. Alpert

The chaos that led to a rampaging mob storming a Long Island Wal-Mart - and trampling a worker to death - erupted just after a pair of police cruisers pulled from the parking lot, witnesses said yesterday.

"Once they left, it started getting rowdy," said Jason Ortiz, 32, who came from East Flatbush in Brooklyn to get an early jump on post-Thanksgiving Day shopping. "The crowd got restless."

Worker Jdimytai Damour, 34, of Queens - who had been hired from a temp agency just for the holiday rush - went to open the door, but hesitated when he saw how unruly the crowd had become, police said.

Then he opened it anyway, and the frenzied horde stormed through, knocking the door off its hinges and crushing him. The deadly stampede had been building for several hours. At 9 p.m. Friday, 70 people were already lined up, standing next to signs that read "Blitz Line Starts Here" outside the store at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream.

By midnight, that number had doubled, police said, and when the store prepared to open at 5 a.m., an estimated 2,000 were restlessly waiting.

Law-enforcement officials said police had patrolled the mall throughout the night, but that shopping lines are "not something we would normally police."

"You have to remember that this is private property," Nassau County Police Detective Lt. Kevin Smith said. "The onus is on the store to provide security."

Officials with Wal-Mart say they did just that, adding additional security personnel and erecting barricades, but now admit it wasn't enough.

"Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred," said Hank Mullany, president of the chain's Northeast division.

Jordan Hecht, a lawyer hired by Damour's sisters, said the family was mulling a negligence suit.

"It was certainly avoidable. How do you have 2,000 people trying to get in a store without having proper restraint? Other stores do this, and things like this don't happen," he said.

Damour's father, Ogera Charles, a 66-year-old school-bus driver, said he had yet to hear from Wal-Mart officials. "Somebody should be outside checking how many people are there. This [Black] Friday happens every year . . . They should have more security outside to calm the crowd," he said.

He was most appalled by shoppers who stepped over his son's lifeless body to get inside. "Why, why - looking for bargains? Money doesn't help you. We are human beings," he said.