Following yesterday's display of savage behaviour at a New York City Wal-Mart, the reports of a miscarriage in the midst of the scene confirmed by paramedics may have not occurred. One man was killed and four others treated for minor injuries.
In a tragic scene that escalated from parking lots and sidewalks filled with shoppers waiting impatiently to an unruly crowd of New Yorkers that required police involvement almost 2 hours prior to the store's opening, the events that occurred may gotten some bad press, if not outright false reports made by other shoppers.
At around 3:30 a.m., the Nassau was called in for crowd control at a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, NY, where they used bullhorns at an attempt to gain order of the crowd of shoppers waiting for the "doorbuster" specials at 5:00 a.m.. It was reported in the
New York Times that someone had taped up a sign that said:
“Blitz Line Starts Here.”
And a blitz move is exactly what the crowd did. At 4:55 a.m. they stormed the door 5 minutes before it was to open. The doors bowed under the pressure of the crowd and the reported six to ten workers on the other side of the doors were unable to hold the crowd back. as the glass shattered and some 2,000 shoppers came rushing in.
Jdimytai Damour, 34, also known as Jimmy, lost his life to the mob of frantic shoppers. He had reportedly had Thanksgiving dinner with some family in Queens and had gone to work at the area Wal-Mart afterwards to stock shelves. He had been hired by a temporary agency.
The New York Times also reported that only four other people were treated for minor injuries associated with the mob of crazy shoppers:
Four other people, including a 28-year-old woman who was described as eight months pregnant, were treated at the hospital for minor injuries.
There were no reported miscarriages during yesterday morning's display of insanity. There was a report of a Jessica Keyes, one of the shoppers during the yesterday morning mayhem, who told the New York Daily News that she overheard a paramedic tell her ""There's nothing we can do. The baby is gone."
The Huffington Post explains in a report how the Daily News is now reporting these claims to be unfounded.
A 28-year-old pregnant woman was knocked to the floor during the mad rush. She was hospitalized for observation, police said. Early witness accounts that the woman suffered a miscarriage were unfounded, police said.
Sadly, there is some amateur video of the woman posted on Ebaumsworld that has been used on several blog sites at an attempt at substantiation that the miscarriage did occur. There have also been some sites stating that
hospital officials confirmed the miscarriage but that has been proven unfounded.
There are no reports that the 8-month pregnant woman delivered there in Wal-Mart, which would be the only confirmation of the paramedic's supposed statement. Even if the situation had caused the pregnant woman to go into labour, a woman can safely deliver a child during her eighth month of pregnancy, although the infant would require prenatal care during the 32-36 weeks of the third trimester.
Since patient confidentiality are part of HIPPA, details concerning her treatment of her minor injuries were not released.
The shoppers were rallied up, some defiantly, and cleared from the store following the incident. It took some time but the defiant shoppers who complained that they had been "on line since yesterday morning" despite the man that the savage group killed.
Although the video makes it tough to prove culpability, Police Detective Lt. Michael Fleming who is heading up the investigation did state:
As for those who had run over the victim, criminal charges were possible, the lieutenant said. “I’ve heard other people call this an accident, but it is not,” he said. “Certainly it was a foreseeable act.”
This particular Wal-Mart services an area of New York City's Queens and Brooklyn.
