Granada Hills Vons stays open after customer dies in bakery aisle, employees say

CBS News Los Angeles ^ | 07/10/2026 | Brittney Ermon

[DFG]

Workers at a Granada Hills Vons said their managers kept the grocery store open for hours with a customer's dead body lying in an aisle.

Paszion Horner-Smith said she was working as a supervisor on July 5 when one of her customers suffered a medical emergency in the supermarket's bakery aisle.

"It's just something I've never, ever in my 27 years that I've worked for the company, ever encountered or dealt with," she said.

Horner-Smith and another employee performed CPR, but the customer died.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said crews were called to the store just after 7 p.m. that night for a report of a cardiac arrest.

Horner-Smith said her corporate managers told her to cover the body with carts and umbrellas while the store remained open.

"I'm being called by someone in corporate because they're looking at the cameras, telling me that I need to barricade the body by using carts," she said.

Horner-Smith said the customer's family stayed at the store for four hours until a mortuary removed their loved one from the store.

"This poor family that's just sitting there," Horner-Smith said. "They can't even see their loved one. They can't touch their loved one. They sat in the store for four hours while people continued to shop around their deceased loved one."

UFCW Local 770 President Kathy Finn said she contacted the Albertson's labor relations department after learning about the incident. She said the company has not responded to her questions about protocols for handling a customer's death in the store. The union urged the company to review its emergency policies.

"This situation is just one incident of that kind of callous attitude towards the needs of the workers," Finn said.

[central_va]

Thanks for that. What about the emt’s and their gear?

[BenLurkin]

15 stab wounds or less

[Organic Panic]

That’s what I was thinking. They were probably told to secure the area until a detective or death investigator can have a look. I think there is something left out of the story.

[faucetman]

Cleanup, aisle 4

[Sacajaweau]

Sorry...The family had all rights to that body...I don’t care what they were told by corporate.

[Dilbert San Diego]

That’s what I wondered.Thanks for the info.

The story seems so unbelievable.Someone collapses in a grocery store and the reaction is to try to cover up the body? Nobody called 911? Suppose someone collapsed, but they are still alive. If first responders have been called, they may have been able to save their life.

Instead, a decision is made just to let someone lie there. This is unbelievable to me.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I’m sure there is more to the story. My unanswered question is, did no one call 911? Someone collapses, and they could well still be alive. And could be saved if medical care was given to them.

Instead, someone decided that the the person was dead and apparently no need to call first responders?

There are certain details that would hopefully fill in the blanks.This is a weird story.

[ChildOfThe60s]

Does anyone know how to dial 911? And call the EMS yourself.

It befuddles me to see stories daily where people don’t stand up for themselves and just let others tell them what to do in these kinds of situations.

[CdMGuy]

The question that should be asked is why it took the LA City or County department which is responsible for picking up deceased people over four hours to do so. Why would people expect the Vons Supermarket to remove a significant number of shoppers as well as the entire staff from the store and shut it down? The deceased body should have been removed within a half hour by the paramedics and ambulance personnel. This is simply one more failure by the City of Los Angeles.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Well the old saying is "the show must go on".

[desertsolitaire]

Depending upon the circumstances of death and whether the deceased was under a physician’s care for something at the time they died, EMS may be prohibited from moving anything until an ME or coroner examines the body and scene. In any case, if the person is dead and no longer receiving active resuscitation efforts. EMS does not transport bodies to help out the mortuary by hurrying. They also may not be reimbursed for loading a dead body into their rig and moving it anywhere.
Just my 2 cents.

[minnesota_bound]

Paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto would not leave the body....