A Wal-Mart discount store worker was killed on Friday when “out-of-control” shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5am sale.
Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were 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, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.
Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store. When told to leave, they complained that they had been in line since Thursday morning.
Nassau County police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the store doors at the mall about 30km east of Manhattan.
The impatient crowd knocked the man, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour of the New York City borough of Queens, 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,” Nassau police spokesman Lieutenant Michael Fleming said. He described the scene as “utter chaos,” and said the store did not 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.
Damour, 34, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 6am, 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,” police Sergeant Anthony Repalone said.
Police said criminal charges were possible in the case, but Fleming said it would be difficult to identify individual shoppers. Authorities were reviewing surveillance video.
Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like “savages.”
Elsewhere, a woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening on Friday in nearby Farmingdale, Suffolk County police said.
She suffered minor injuries, but finished shopping before filling the report, police said.
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