Posted on 08/23/2005 10:47:25 AM PDT by JamesP81
A Cleveland man died last Sunday after a scuffle with security guards at the Walmart Super Center located at 6626 FM1960 in Atascocita.
According to witnesses, Stacy Driver ran out of the store and was pursued by Walmart loss prevention employees. A short time later, Driver was dead, and the Walmart employees were trying to explain the last moments of his life to police.
Charles Portz said he was getting out of his car when he saw a heavy blonde haired man being chased by five people who appeared to be security or store employees. He said he saw them wrestling the man to the ground. "The blacktop was extremely hot," said Portz "He had no shirt on and they wouldn't let him up off the blacktop."
snip
According to Portz, Driver began to plead with them men. "He's begging, 'Please call an ambulance, let me up, do something, I'm gonna die," said Portz. He said the loss prevention employees called the police more than once, but another bystander called for an ambulance after realizing Driver was in trouble. Portz said he eventually began to plead with the Walmart employees. "I told them, this guy doesn't look like he's breathing," Portz said, "They said, 'He's all right."
snip
The store employees could not have known that the witness who was pleading with them to let Driver get up from the hot pavement was a high profile Houston attorney, from the Portz and Portz law firm.
snip
Without a crystal ball, final consequences of actions are a little bit hard to determine. Maybe the lesson is not to put yourself in situations where you may be chased for stealing, run from your pursuers, pushed to the hot blacktop and ultimately die. I'm sure the employee's didn't go to work that day hoping to chase someone down and sit on them until they checked out.
It's an avoidable death, and most of the actions could have been avoided by the victim.
um....Walmart dudes can handcuff you if they think you've stolen something? I'm thinking there may have been a problem there.
um....Walmart dudes can handcuff you if they think you've stolen something? I'm thinking there may have been a problem there.
Thanks
Playing Devil's advocate.
Seems to me he died after he was in custody and was asking for medical attention. Does Texas have a law against Homicide as a result of torture?
and don't shop from Wal-Mart. They will kill the American economy.
I am not sure about that but they did have the right to restrain him. If one of the employees had died of a heart attack chasing him the perp if he didn't die could be charged with murder. Property right are prety strong here in Texas.
OK, at what point is the value of something stolen worth pursuing.$10, $20, $100 ???
I only lived in TX for a few years but yes I think they can.
Indoobitably
Depends on what he died of. I guess they'll do an autopsy and determine whether he had a heart attack or whether something the employees did actually harmed him. I would bet it is the former (or something like it).
Not to mention that an obese male with lots of abdominal fat can actually be put in a position where the heart cannot contract due to the increased pressure of the fatty tissues surrounding it. In my facility when we take down these types, we immediately put them on their side as soon as they have been subdued and restrained.
Wow...so lets assume these WalMart guys thought the dude had stolen something....they tackled and killed him...and he turned out to have nothing...or a receipt for whatever it was they saw.
It seems there is a bit of a policy problem here.
The way things are, if I'm walking through Walmart and just happen to stick my hands in my pockets, or, as actually happens to me quite often, I buy some fishing line and the beepers go off at the door, Chuck in housewares has the right and duty to kick my a$$?
"...One thirty-two and Bush, I've got him at gunpoint...."
I agree. He wouldn't have run if he had a receipt.
even if he stole the hope diamond, he should be in jail and jail only.
That's the plan. But if the guy suffered a heart attack from running or something, that's not the fault of the security guards.
I'd be interested to see a follow up story with autopsy results.
I don't think the employees were trying to kill the guy, but things went bad. Things wouldn't have gone bad if he hadn't started the chain of events
I presume you wouldn't run when Chuck came to question you about it. If not, then there wouldn't be any reason for Chuck to kick your behind.
"Portz said he eventually began to plead with the Walmart employees. "I told them, this guy doesn't look like he's breathing," Portz said, "They said, 'He's all right."
Now you know why they are Walmart security and not physicans.
It sounds like one helluva nasty way to meet your Maker IMHO.
I am big on property rights also.
The way I am reading this the Walmart Employees were negligent once they had the accused in custody and didn't provide any medical assistance and there are plenty of witnesses. This just smacks of big lawsuits.
I wonder if the Police got the videotapes from Walmart, they don't like to give them up.
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