Death after restraint at Kmart investigated as homicide

Suspected thief held down by workers

The man who died Tuesday at a local department store may have suffered a medical episode during an altercation with loss prevention workers, but his death is being investigated as a homicide for now, APD spokesman Tanner Tixier said.

Loss prevention workers at the Kmart on Carlisle NE at Indian School detained the man, who has not been identified, around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday believing he was shoplifting, Tixier said. As they waited for police to arrive, the man attempted to flee, and was restrained by two to three employees, Tixier said.

“As a result of the struggle and the restraint, that individual passed away on scene from some type of medical episode or medical distress,” Tixier said in a Wednesday afternoon news conference.

The cause of his death has not been determined by the Office of the Medical Investigator, he said.

A couple of shoppers who witnessed part of the altercation told the Journal they heard a man groaning as soon as they entered the store. And as they walked down a center aisle toward the shoe department, they saw a man pinned facedown on the ground by two employees, a third joined them minutes later.

That’s according to Chantel Trujillo and her mother Rosemarie Romero who stopped by Kmart to look at shoes at around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“It was gonna be a quick trip,” Romero said as she and her daughter sat in her vehicle after the incident.

When they were in the store, the man “struggled a little bit, and then he said he was sorry,” Trujillo said, her voice breaking.

“A couple minutes later he said ‘I’m scared,’ and that was the last thing that came out of his mouth,” she said. “Two to three minutes later he stopped moving.”

She estimated that employees continued holding the man down for about 10 minutes, until police and paramedics arrived. She knew something was wrong when they turned the man over.

“The cop yelled, ‘ How long were you guys on top of him?’ ” said Trujillo, who stayed in the area watching the altercation for several minutes. Romero said she walked around the store, but returned to the area periodically.

“I, of course, would never have left if I would have known he was going to end up dead,” Romero said. “I did not expect that at all. I had a bad feeling, but I didn’t think it was going to be that bad of an ending.”

Tixier said he did not know what led employees to believe the man was shoplifting, or what, if anything, he may have been trying to steal. He said the department is working to gather all of the evidence in the case, including surveillance video and statements from witnesses. They’ll consult with the District Attorney’s Office to decide how to proceed.

“Then we’ll make a determination on whether or not these individuals should be charged criminally for the death of this individual,” Tixier said. “Or if this was just a tragedy that a person had an underlying condition and a minor struggle caused them to pass away. We just don’t know.”