Wal-Mart employees charged with fatally crushing suspected shoplifter

[jpak]

Source: Bangor Daily News

It was the middle of the night on Feb. 7, at a Florida Wal-Mart Supercenter, when Kenneth E. Wisham, 64, allegedly decided to steal $380.74 worth of DVDs.

Pushing a shopping cart stacked high with them, Wisham tried to leave the store without employees noticing, but when they did — and then confronted him — the man ran, police said, tugging at his falling pants along the way.

At some point Wisham fell, the initial police report says, and three Wal-Mart employees detained him.

Twelve hours later, Wisham was dead.

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Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2016/08/02/news/nation/wal-mart-employees-charged-with-fatally-crushing-suspected-shoplifter/?ref=polbeat

[giftedgirl77]

1. Wow, so if a civilian does the exact same thing as a cop

they get charged? But a cop can shoot someone at point blank range & gets a paid vacation. Double standard ass bullshit.

[ronnie624]

3. It's probably illegal in Florida

to physically detain a person, unless you're a law enforcement officer. It is in many other states.

[angrychair]

10. In Florida?

The Stand Your Ground gun law state? If they had confronted him, "felt" threatened and shot him to death: legal
Holding him down till police arrive: illegal

Not saying what happened is right but it sends the wrong message.

Considering I just watched a whole group of cops shoot a homeless old women with rusty kitchen knife to death after only trying for a couple of minutes, this is screwed up.

[ronnie624]

11. He was running away and they had recovered the merchandise. n/t

[angrychair]

13. Here were I live

We had cops hunting down two people who never actually left the store with unpaid merchandise (grocery store) or hurt anybody.
The two "suspects" (black males of course) were charged at by someone with a flashlight in their eyes, words were exchanged and one started swinging his skateboard at the cop and he unloaded a couple rounds into the guy (he lived).
No actual crime was committed until the skateboard portion but that part of the incident would have never happened if they had let it go when nothing was actually stolen

[giftedgirl77]

15. Haha, glad I read your response before sending my rebuttal.

[cstanleytech]

8. One difference is that you are required by law to comply with reasonable demands

that police issue and if you resist they have the legal right to use reasonable force, walmart employees dont however have the legal right to use said force to detain someone.

[giftedgirl77]

16. In the real world there is a thing called escalation of force

Just because a cop has to roll around in the dirt too detain someone doesn't call for the use of deadly force, EVER.

[cstanleytech]

17. Actually sometimes it does require deadly force but by and large deadly force isnt needed

but that aside there clearly is a problem right now with police and the amount of force they are using and most of it is due to extremely lax criteria for choosing candidates and shitty training.

[giftedgirl77]

18. Just wrestling with someone does not escalate anything.

If during said altercation someone pulls our a weapon then force is escalated. Let's not pretend this is hard to understand.

[grubbs]

2. That's terrible

They thwarted the theft. Why bother chasing him at all? That is not the training I recieved during my twelve years in retail.

[Fla Dem]

5. Agree, when I worked retail we were told never to physically restrain anyone.

Call the police, do nothing more. Or if there was in house security to call them.

[Scalded Nun]

4. It would be interesting to find out what their 'training' is for this

Since WalMart employs no security and relies on local law enforcement (at least that is what I have been told).

[christx30]

6. 5 out of 6 walmarts in my area hire private security.

They check receipts on every customer that leaves the store. You stand in line at checkout, then you stand in line at security. He or she checks your receipt for the number of items, the time/date of your visit, manager on duty, then signs off. It's annoying, but I do understand why they do it.

[cstanleytech]

7. But thats just it their training consists of not confronting them and to simply call the police the

employees clearly violated the stores policy and will likely be fired.

[JesterCS]

12. You're correct

Walmart employees are told never to chase, detain, assault shoplifters. They'll be fired at least.

[Mosby]

14. One of the three worked in loss prevention and the other two were supervisors.

[iscooterliberally]

9. I chased someone down who stole from a music store that I was working at years ago.

They guy was much bigger than me, but he took a $1000 guitar from the rack and ran out the front door. He didn't realize I was watching the whole thing while helping another customer. I was the only one who could ring him up for the guitar anyway and he thought he could get away with it. It was a long time ago and I was in much better shape. I ran out the door after him, but didn't shout or make any noise. I just kept up with him until he stopped running, but I was right behind him. I shouted, 'what the hell are you doing with my guitar' right in his ear at full volume. He bolted upright and right as he did that, I twisted the body of the guitar which broke his one-handed grip on the neck. I had control of the guitar and jogged back to the store after yelling at the guy that I would call the cops on him if I ever saw him again. It occurred to me how crazy I was for doing that. He could have had a gun, or even just could have fought me for the guitar. I should not have confronted the guy, but I was so angry and I let it get the best of me. I was also afraid that the owner's of the store might doc my pay for a stolen guitar. Back then it would have been about 3 weeks pay. I couldn't afford that, so I was running for my life. I doubt the little store had the insurance to cover it anyway. If I worked at Walmart, I would have just followed the guy and got a license plate number and the best description I could give the police. I don't want to punch anyone let alone kill someone over steeling. The punishment should fit the crime, and just because someone does steel, it doesn't give us the right to beat them to death. This is just awful.

[LeftyMom]

19. Every retail job I ever had chasing a thief out the door was a firing offense.

Replacing merchandise is a bargain compared to ER visits and lawsuits.