By dawn on Nov. 28, 2008,
the day after American Thanksgiving,
there were 2,000 shoppers outside the Wal-Mart
in Valley Stream, Long Island.
And they were hungry for bargains
on digital cameras and microwaves ovens.
Jdimytai Damour
was a maintenance worker;
it wasn’t his job to deal with customers,
but he was a big guy
so the boss asked him to help with the crowd.
He was about to open the door
when the crowd pushed again
and the glass doors shattered.
The shoppers broke through,
twisting the metal frame
and knocking him down.
They stampeded over him into the store.
Each person who got into that store
passed him as he lay on the floor
gasping.
Some people walked on him.
His co-workers tried to pull him out of the way
but the crowd knocked them down too.
The shoppers didn’t know what happened
to the guy in the hall until two hours later
when the store manager announced over the PA:
“One of our employees has been
killed.
We are going to close the store.”
But they wouldn’t leave.
One shopper said, “I stood in line for six hours
– I’m not leaving until I get my shopping done.”
Jdimytai was 34.
He liked to talk about politics and movies.
He wore his hair in dreadlocks.
He’d been on the job a week.
He was earning minimum wage.
