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Henry
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« : November 29, 2008, 09:44:25 AM » |
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NEW YORK (AP) — A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday after an “out of control” throng of shoppers eager for post-Thanksgiving bargains broke down the doors at a suburban store and knocked him to the ground, police said.
Nassau police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the store doors at the mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the man to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.
Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help the man were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Witnesses said that even as the worker lay on the ground, shoppers streamed into the store, stepping over him.
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.”
It's just astounding on so many levels. You know, it almost seemed like the nose-diving economy was at least giving people some perspective, some sense that maybe they'd overdone it on "things" and needed to just chill for a bit. Apparently not.
_ Terri Hallenbeck
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