Stores need to better plan for crowds, police say
As police brass dissect what happened when a stampede of shoppers outside a Valley Stream Wal-Mart left a seasonal worker dead, they may lean on the stores themselves to better plan for events like Black Friday, a Nassau police spokesman said yesterday.
Nassau police say the stampede outside the discount chain store was foreseeable given the huge crowds that gather for post-Thanksgiving sales.
"I can't stress enough how the onus is on them," said Det. Lt. Kevin Smith, the county police's chief spokesman.
Wal-Mart has defended its security planning, saying it anticipated the large crowds, hired more personnel and put up barricades.
Smith said if businesses refused to work with police to make events safer, authorities could take steps like calling in the fire marshal to inspect the premises for safety.
"We got caught with our pants down on this one," Carver said. "There should be more communication between the department and the mall on what is going on."
But the Black Friday melee is proof the department can no longer leave security for these kinds of events as much in the hands of the private business when the public is at risk, said Jim Carver, president of the Nassau Police Benevolent Association.
"We got caught with our pants down on this one," Carver said. "There should be more communication between the department and the mall on what is going on."
Meanwhile, police said more about what happened in the early hours before the crowd pushed its way into the store and trampled seasonal maintenance worker Jdimytai Damour to death.
Summoned by a call around 3:10 a.m. reporting a disturbance in the crowd waiting for the Wal-Mart to open, Nassau police found no criminality but still encouraged the crowd to be orderly, Smith said. Smith said officers addressed bargain hunters in person and over a loudspeaker.
At that point, the crowd was about 500 people, police have said. Later, it swelled to about 2,000, according to authorities.
"'Look, you've got to stay tight and neat and orderly,'" Smith said the officers told the crowd. "'Let's make this work for everybody.'"
Those officers stayed for about 30 minutes, he said. Police did not return to the store again until the predawn stampede, Smith said.
The crowd erupted in pushing, shoving and cutting in line when the interior doors were opened just before 5 a.m., Smith said.
Starting at 5:03 a.m., after the crowd had pushed the outside doors off their hinges, police had sent nearly three dozen units, including police officers and ambulances, he said.
BIGGER BY THE HOUR
Nassau police say the number of shoppers waiting at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart quickly escalated.
9 P.M.
About 30 people
11 P.M.
More than 100 people
3 A.M.
More than 500 people
AROUND 5 A.M.
About 2,000 people
Posted Sunday, November 30, 2008
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