“The employee was “stepped on by hundreds of people” as other workers attempted to fight their way through the crowd, Fleming said. “Several minutes” passed before others were able to clear space around the man and attempt to render aid. Police arrived, and “as they were giving first aid, those police officers were also jostled and pushed,” he said.
“Shoppers … were on a full-out run into the store,” he said.
The crowd had begun forming outside the store by 9 p.m. Thursday, Fleming said. By 5 a.m. Friday, when the doors were unlocked, there were 2,000 or so shoppers, many of whom “surged forward,” breaking the doors, he said.
The man was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.”
