Mayor declares local Wal-Mart a public nuisance
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The mayor of the Indiana town of Beech Grove has declared its Wal-Mart a public nuisance, a designation that will allow the town to assess fines when police are called to the store.
The nuisance declaration by Mayor Dennis Buckley followed two shoplifting incidents that resulted in two deaths, the Indianapolis Star and Fox Business report.
In the first, a shoplifting suspect chased by police in June ran a red light and crashed into two other vehicles, killing a 63-year-old woman. In the second, a shoplifting suspect pulled a gun last Thursday and fled to the restroom of a nearby restaurant, where he shot himself in the head. He died from the gunshot wound over the weekend.
In another incident, a fight between two women in the shampoo aisle was recorded on video and went viral. Police were called to the store more than 1,200 times between February 2014 and mid-June.
Wal-Mart spokesman Brian Nick told the Indianapolis Star that Wal-Mart employees kept shoppers safe during the latest incident, and the store’s security measures helped identify a dangerous individual. He said police calls have been reduced due to a restorative justice program that results in fines rather than arrests.
Buckley explained the reason for his decision in an interview with Fox Business. “Wal-Mart Beech Grove is draining our police resources,” Buckley said. “It’s the string of terrible events that have been occurring down there over the past two months that has led me to instruct our police chief to declare the Wal-Mart a public nuisance.”
“Wal-Mart needs to do a better job of watching who comes in their store and what they do when they get in that store.” Buckley said. “They need to have a police presence and they’ve already started doing it. There needs to be off-duty police officers.”
Hat tip to Above the Law.
