NEW YORK — A Walmart worker was killed Friday when “out of control” shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at 5 a.m.
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.
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, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour of Queens, to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.
Also Friday, two men were shot to death in a crowded toy store in Palm Desert, Calif., in a confrontation apparently involving rival groups, city officials said. The officials said they were told the men shot each other, but investigators remained tight-lipped.
The Palm Desert Police Department received calls of shots fired just after 11:30 a.m. and found the two men dead. Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez confirmed there was a fight but said it was not over a toy.
“I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys ‘R’ Us?” said Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson. “I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper.”
