A routine shoplifting call has turned into a homicide for Tulsa police. Did Wal-Mart employees go too far?
Employees at a Wal-Mart in Tulsa, Oklahoma say that Floyd Watson tried to leave the store with stolen property. Police say Watson had been arrested for several felonies before.
Wal-Mart employees have seen shoplifters get caught before, but this time the suspect tried to get away. "
He was running and he hit the door loudly and I thought he was going to knock it off,"“ said Wal-Mart employee Lori Dickerson.
Store security chased and caught up with him in the parking lot where they cuffed him while he was lying on the ground. When police arrived a few minutes later, they found the suspect in handcuffs and unconscious. Officer Jason Willingham said, "when they walked up, they noticed the gentleman was unresponsive, so they immediately felt for a pulse, did not find a pulse, un-cuffed him, started performing CPR until EMSA and the fire department arrived on scene." Mr. Watson was pronounced dead at the hospital a few hours later.”
Tulsa police say many factors may have contributed to his death and just because there was more than one employee in the chase and take down, it does not automatically make it a case of excessive force,
"it's not uncommon to take two or three people to put one person into custody it happens everyday in our profession,'“ Willingham said.
Wal-mart issued this statement"
"At this time, we are looking into the details, as well as cooperating fully with the Tulsa Police Department investigation. We are conducting our own internal investigation to ensure we know exactly what occurred and hope to know more soon."
Tulsa police are now reviewing surveillance video of the entire incident. They believe that will provide clear information about how much force was used and if it was too much.
It is expected to take a few weeks for the medical examiner to rule on the cause of death.
