Walmart Workers Killed a Man on Sunday - Business - The Atlantic Wire

 

Lesson of the story: Don't steal from that Walmart.

 

Whoops, that was probably not the outcome they wanted.

 

Ugh! Security guards for places like wal-mart are there for presence, not to play out their Chuck Norris fantasy on some guy who steals two dvds.

Security guards are not the police, they don't recieve the comprehensive training in physical restraint that police officers do -I don't mean to be condescending, but there is a very good reason why most security guards are expected to allow the police to apprehend criminals.

All to often we have people coming into the hospital who have been manhandled by under-trained and inadequately skilled security guards who get it in their heads they are saving the world from the scum of the earth. Holding someone in a choke hold is dangerous even under the most skilled hands - I can't imagine what possessed these people to even think this poor guy was so dangerous that he required manhandling by THREE adults - good lord! Did the guy have a gun? a machete? A bazooka?

 

^ Agree with the above. Assuming the guy didn't have a concealed weapon though.

I guess 'overkill' really does live up to its name in this case.

 

Don't steal.

I think if everything was "steal a horse and get hung for it" the world would be a lot better of a place.

U certainly would weed out a lot of people in a damned hurry.

If u got shot for stealing a man's horse, you should be shot for stealing a man's car.

 

-1 criminal, next issue.

 

Every year on Black Friday you always hear or read something going on at a Walmart. Don't be surprise if the family of that shoplifter is going to sue Walmart. But Walmart always settles instead of going to trial.

The nearest Walmart where I live used to have Vice Security guards driving around the parking lot in small pickups. But now they are gone and been replaced by one city cop.

 

It's a pity they weren't at the Wal-Mart in question, if they were then maybe they could have stopped the physical assault on the man that was killed as a result of the assault.

 

Live by the Walmart.
Die by the Walmart.

 

What he said  

 

Hung for a sheep as for a lamb really didn't do the British much good champ.

Honestly two DVD players weren't worth the risk to the employee's lives that they took trying to apprehend the man and regardless if he was a criminal or not they now have the issue of an unlawful killing to clear up.

I mean all this over two DVD players, oh yeah, they really themselves into the fray against SPECTRE for Queen and Country on this one.

 

It won't be interesting to see if the man's family brings a wrongful death lawsuit against Walmart for this (I just assume they will, as everyone sues over everything these days). It will be interesting to see if they win.

 

I think if the family do sue, they will absolutely win. Excessive force was used in stopping this man from running away with what probably amounted to a very small monetary loss to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has a responsibility to ensure that it's employees - including sub-contracted employees - understand what constitutes excessive force. Clearly, in this case excessive force was used as the man was in a choke hold and held down by not one, but three adults. Unless this guy was packing some serious weaponry and these employees felt that there was a serious risk to their lives, I can't see any judge not deciding that excessive use of force was present in this case. You don't kill another human being simply by restraining them, to kill this guy, they either crushed him to death, or they incorrectly used the choke hold (probably both). This guy was not getting up and walking away with 3 men restraining him, there was no need to use such force to cause his life to expire! Wal-Mart should be embarrassed that this incident occurred.

 

Seeing as I was always told that we had no legal authority to detain someone once they left the store (even in the parking lot) when I worked retail, it could very well be the dead guy's family would have a case. But the law, and its interpretation, could vary considerably from place to place.

One of the other reasons they told us not to pursue shoplifters is because the legal fees of just having to deal with such a case, as well as the negative press, outweighed the cost to the company of losing a few cheapass dvd players. They account for the amount of merchandise that'll "grow legs" or break when they calculate their prices.

 

At least it wasn't a protesting Walmart employee that got killed

 

Moral of the story is- Don't steal and don't use your pent up rage on said swindlers.

 

This pretty much says it all. Loss Prevention really can't detain you once you are out the door (or at least that's what I was told), they can stop you while you are trying to go out the door, but once you are outside they aren't even supposed to pursue you further...for exactly this reason!

 

Well, looks like this is my expertise, being both an Unarmed Security Guard and Loss Prevention Agent...

The choke-hold was the wrong move, without question. That said (and this doesn't necessarily apply to every company out there, but it's in our policy), we're allowed to use "equal and necessary" force to apprehend and detain a subject. Also, any force necessary to protect any store employees or bystanders. The article says nothing about the physical part of the altercation, so there's no saying without the video what actually took place and why that Security Guard felt he needed the put the guy in a choke hold.

Regardless, he shouldn't have though and what the spokesperson said is exactly right, "no amount of merchandise is worth anyone's life," or safety for that matter. Prime policy we abide by in this line of work.

Not trying to defend the Guard's actions, just wanted to clear up some issues on policy. Lots of retail stores contract out Security Guards because they don't want their own employees confronting shoplifters, they're usually not trained to do so properly. Also, should anything happen to an employee who is injured in an altercation with a shoplifter, that time and money out of the store. Should a Guard get injured, that's on the contracted company. Basically, it's a liability thing more than anything else.

 

Really? Here in England they can't detain you until you've actually left the premises with an item without paying, otherwise it's not theft. And then the security guy(s) would ask the person to return with them to the store or chase them down if they run.