Update: Jdimytai Damour

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have been trying to follow-up on reader requests, with little success. Here is what I have been able to learn so far.

Newsday, the daily newspaper of Long Island, reports that the family of Mr. Damour (pictured at right) has hired an attorney and is suing Wal-Mart and other entities for wrongful death. Relatives of NY worker killed in Black Friday shoppers' stampede sue Wal-Mart, other companies — Newsday.com:

The family of the Valley Stream Wal-Mart employee trampled to death on "Black Friday" filed a lawsuit Wednesday in New York State Supreme Court in the Bronx, the Associated Press is reporting.

The wrongful-death lawsuit was filed on behalf of Elsie Damour Phillipe, the sister of victim Jdimytai Damour, a temporary employee who was trampled to death when an estimated 2,000 customers broke down doors and stormed into the store in the Green Acres Mall before dawn last Friday.

It claims store ads offering deep discounts "created an atmosphere of competition and anxiety" that led to "crowd craze."

The lawsuit also claims that besides failing to provide adequate security for a pre-dawn crowd estimated at 2,000, Wal-Mart "engaged in specific marketing and advertising techniques to specifically attract a large crowd and create an environment of frenzy and mayhem and was otherwise careless, reckless and negligent."

New York lawyer Jordan Hecht represents Elsie Damour Phillipe, the court appointed administrator of Mr. Damour's estate. I contacted Mr. Hecht regarding an address to where readers can send their condolences to the family, but I have not received any response.

A New Jersey lawyer has started a memorial fund for the family of Mr. Damour. Fund started to help Wal-Mart stampede victim's family — Newsday.com

"I am truly disgusted by this situation," said Al Marmero, who practices real estate law in New Jersey. He described himself as a "fan of Christmas" who sees the frenzied crowd's behavior as "the antithesis of the Christmas and holiday spirit."

After reading about the killing of Jdimytai Damour on Friday, Marmero registered a nonprofit fund and got an IRS tax-exempt number. He said he is making the first donation of $1,000 himself this week. He hopes that others will contribute to help Damour's relatives, including his mother, a retired housekeeper from the Pierre Hotel who lives in Haiti.

I have also been unable to obtain any information regarding this memorial fund.

Anyone who has relatives living in the tri-state area who may have access to information from local news sources that you can share here, please post a comment for others.

One has to question why Wal-Mart did not immediately establish a memorial fund for the family and make a big contribution. That might have discouraged any lawsuit.

I have not been able to find any memorial or obituary notice in the New York newspapers. There is a publication fee, so the family may not have been able to afford one.

This report briefly describes Mr. Damour Trying to Make Sense of a Fatal Stampede at Wal-Mart – NYTimes.com:

Jdimytai Damour was a big man — 270 pounds, by one account — but he was a gentle giant to his friends, who said he loved to chat about movies, Japanese anime and politics.

* * *

“If you wanted to know about a show, this was the guy, and he had a great sense of humor,” said Jean Olivier, who met Mr. Damour eight years ago in the Rosedale section of Queens.

* * *

Mr. Damour, 34, … was known to his friends as Jimbo, or Jdidread because of his dreadlocks.

And Newsday describes Mr. Damour in this piece Trampling victim was easygoing, helpful, friends say — Newsday.com

Jdimytai Damour, 34, the Wal-Mart worker who died Friday after a stampede in a Valley Stream store, was an easygoing, helpful man who loved poetry, his friends and family said.

Family friend Ronald Jean Myrthil, of Brideport, Conn., said Damour came to pick him up after he had staggered across the Brooklyn Bridge, fleeing Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.

* * *

A Freeport High School graduate, Damour attended Nassau Community College for a year, his father said.

His family roots are in Haiti, and he had a brother and four sisters, said Nicole Jean, 60, a Rosedale woman who said she was a close family friend. Damour's mother, who lives in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is flying up this weekend.

Myrthil, who is Jean's son, said Damour was a big man and had no apparent health problems. Damour did construction work for a time and installed fences, he said.

Damour loved poetry, and he was a fan of the late novelist Donald Goines, the friend said.

He was easygoing – a nice guy, Myrthil said. "A very good kid."

Certainly a better man than the animals who trampeled him to death without regard for human life. They did not even stop to render aid to Mr. Damour after realizing they stepped on him. These animals know who they are, and yet, not one of them has been so disturbed by a guilty conscience that they have felt compelled to turn themself, and others with them, in to the police to confess their culpability in his death.

Maybe Jdimytai Damour will become the symbol for reform of the advertising that encourages this mob mentality, and for greater employee security and safety in the retail workplace.