Video Shows Fired Walmart Employee's Wrestle Gun From Shoplifter

[Private R Wiggum]

i thought it would interesting to share this news clip and article here:

[ Video Shows Fired Walmart Employee's Wrestle Gun From Shoplifter ]

and then they all got fired. in a way ~ kind of like what happened to one pharmacist at Walgreens.

surely it's a natural instinct to protect oneself and your fellow employees, right??? i wasn't there. it was definitely a fight or flight situation.

i think corporations are placing potential corporate liability above the lives & safety of their disposable workforce. i could be wrong though.

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[drew]

i think corporations are placing potential corporate liability above the lives & safety of their disposable workforce. i could be wrong though.

It's been this way for a while. Many policies are designed to limit liability.

 

[One-Eyed Ross]

Sad, isn't it? They are more afraid of law suits than their employees dying.

 

[biggie24420]

The bottom line is that the stolen merchandise was recovered and when the guy pulled a gun, they should have let him go. But...... the problem is what if they guy went on a rampage and started to shoot up the place after he left the room? Having worked Loss Prevention, most LP officers are not trained and they are just security in normal clothing. I have worked with my fair share of loser in the security field (can't confirm nor deny if I still do lol) after what I saw in this vid, someone could have got hurt or died if the gun went off. When I worked as a LP, as soon as we caught someone for stealing, they were put in handcuffs. If they fought and ran off.... oh well. If this guy was detained and patted down, he would not have been able to pull a gun.

These employees tried to be heroes, yeah they might have done the right thing or the wrong thing, but this could have gotten bloody and deadly and that is why I think Walmart decided to let them go (like the vid said). If one of the employees or one of the customers was shot due to the LP's actions, could you imagine what would have happened to Walmart?

 

[darkminstrel]

There was a gun? A laptop? I was stuck thinking 'It's Pat'! So that's what s/he did after SNL!

 

[ThemGunsThough]

Morrons... Walmart - where its all about volume sales, not volume lives.

 

[CharonPDX]

It's hard to tell exactly what's going on in that video. It sounds, from the employees own perspective, like the shoplifter was basically pleading to just be let go. It's unclear from the video when precisely he pulls his gun, and when precisely he says those words. If it was "pull gun while separate from employees, plead to be let go" then a pause before the employees react, then really, they should have let him go. But if the shoplifter started the scuffle, then drew the gun, then only while employees had a hold of it pleaded, I can see taking him down had become priority #1.

Pulling the gun is one step of escalation, if that escalation is accompanied by words promising de-escalation, in an attitude of de-escalation, the de-escalation should be tried, as the best means of avoiding injury to anyone.

That said, I wasn't there. I don't know the details. Because the only people who DO know the details were either the shoplifter, or the fired employees, I would err on the side of the people who were on the defensive.

(I have been in one vaguely similar situation: Walked to my car to find someone in it rifling through the glove box. Chased him through the apartment complex I was visiting, and when he pulled a knife, I stood back and let him run. I was unarmed at the time - my weapon ironically in the apartment of the person I was visiting so he could take it to a range the next day...)