A preliminary autopsy report released yesterday shows that the temporary employee who was the victim of a shoppers' stampede in a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday died of asphyxiation. Nassau County
police released the findings at a news conference in which they also defended themselves from criticism,
Newsday's Laura Rivera and Alphonso A. Castillo report.
"The
flaw here really comes down to the planning and organization of the sales event," according to Lawrence Mulvey, the Nassau police commissioner. A personal-injury attorney retained by the
victim's three sisters says Wal-Mart didn't have enough security guards at the store and the staff wasn't properly trained.
Wal-Mart responds that it set up barricades,
hired third-party security guards and had extra staff on hand, Ann Zimmerman reports in the
Journal.
The retailer says security is handled on a store-by-store basis. The police say they believe the line was orderly until the victim went to open the store's
interior doors at 5 a.m., and a crowd of people who hadn't been on line surged through the doors.
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