Holiday Shopping Deadly for Some

A worker at a Wal-Mart in New York City’s Long Island suburbs was killed when a throng of shoppers broke down the doors to the store early this morning and knocked him to the ground.

In California, two people died after a shooting at a Toys “R” Us Inc. store.

The incident at the Long Island outlet of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. killed a temporary employee and was “a tragic situation,” the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company, the world’s biggest retailer, said in a statement. “The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if any shoppers or workers have been killed during similar incidents during sales on the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally known as Black Friday.

“We do not know of an incident such as what happened today,” Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based National Retail Federation, said in an e-mail. “Retailers are reminded of the importance of employee safety.”

At least four shoppers were hurt in the melee at the store in the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, about 13 miles (20 kilometers) east of New York City, Nassau County Police said in a statement. A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital for observation, and three people suffered minor injuries, police said.

The 34-year-old worker, who wasn’t identified by police, was knocked down by the crowd shortly after 5 a.m. local time and taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 a.m., the police said. The county medical examiner will determine the cause of death.

Temporary Employee

The man was working for a temporary agency on the company’s behalf, Wal-Mart said in the statement.

About 2,000 people had gathered outside the store as it prepared to open, police Detective Michael Bitsko said in a telephone interview. Employees had opened the interior doors and were preparing to open the main entrance when the crowd surged forward, knocking the front door off its hinges, he said.

Authorities are reviewing surveillance video and are considering criminal charges, Bitsko said. Some people continued to shop even though upset store workers attempted to get them to leave, Newsday said, citing Kimberly Cribbs, a shopper from Far Rockaway.

Store Closed

The store reopened later in the day, and police stood outside to keep customers orderly as some shoppers tried to enter without knowing what had happened, Bitsko said. Wal-Mart told police it had security at the store to handle crowds this morning, he said.

“Black Friday’s becoming more popular,” Bitsko said. “I don’t know if these stores anticipate the number of people that are coming.”

U.S. retailers including Wal-Mart opened their doors as early as midnight and discounted merchandise as much as 70 percent on the day after Thanksgiving to counter what may be the weakest holiday shopping season in six years.

Retailers promoted “doorbuster” deals to attract customers on Black Friday, so named because the day after Thanksgiving was said to be when retailers started to make their annual profit, having paid off their costs from sales earlier in the year.

The Valley Stream store was offering discounted merchandise including a $128 Magnavox DVD player, a $97 Garmin GPS navigation system and a $69 Samsung digital camera, according to a promotional flyer posted on Wal-Mart’s Web site.

Union Involvement

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union’s Local 1500 Chapter, which represents about 23,000 grocery workers in the New York City region, called on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the New York State Labor Department and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office to investigate the incident. Wal-Mart workers are not unionized.

“When you bring in temporary workers, there’s a responsibility whether they’re temporary or not to train and protect those people, and that obviously did not happen here,” Local 1500 spokesman Pat Purcell said in a telephone interview.

OSHA sent an inspector to the store this morning to investigate the incident, said Ted Fitzgerald, a Boston-based spokesman for the agency. The New York Labor Department and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

California Shooting

At the California Toys “R” Us, police received a call at about 11:30 a.m. California time reporting shots fired at the Palm Desert store, Sergeant Dennis Gutierrez said in a telephone interview. Two people were confirmed dead, Gutierrez said, without elaborating.

The shooting may have involved rival gangs, the Associated Press reported. Palm Desert is about 120 miles southeast of Los Angeles and about 10 miles from Palm Springs, California.

Toys “R” Us, based in Wayne, New Jersey, said the shooting apparently was over a personal dispute.

“We are outraged by the act of violence that occurred this afternoon in Palm Desert, California, and by the fact that anyone would compromise the safety and security of our customers and employees,” the retailer said in a statement.

Wal-Mart fell 81 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $55.88 at 1:15 p.m. in a shortened session of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Toys “R” Us was taken private in July 2005 by Bain Capital LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Vornado Realty Trust for $6.6 billion.