Dennis Buckley, the mayor of Beech Grove, IN has had it with the local Walmart store. After a series of criminal incidents, including one that went viral involving a brawl between two women and a six-year-old boy in the shampoo aisle of the store, Mr. Buckley has declared the store a public nuisance. What that means is that the city may issue the store fines when police respond to calls at the business in the future.
While the women and child fighting in the store drew national attention after someone videotaped the incident, other crimes committed at the Walmart have led to more violent consequences.
Back in June, a shoplifting suspect at the store fled police, ran a red light and crashed his vehicle into another, killing the 63-year-old woman driver and injuring two of her family members.
Last week, in another shoplifting incident, a suspect brandished a handgun after being caught by store security personnel. The suspected shoplifter ran off and wound up at a nearby restaurant where he shot himself as police moved in.
Source: indystar.com
According to an Indianapolis Star report, Beech Grove police made 1,278 trips to the Walmart store resulting in 473 arrests between February of last year and mid-June of this.
After the fight between the women in the store back in June, Mayor Buckley told the Star, "This isn't anything new. We have been concerned about this for at least two years, and there have been just some quiet talks with Wal-Mart concerning the number of police runs down there and the fact that they're draining our resources every single day. It's my opinion as mayor that this has to stop."
For its part, Walmart has expressed frustration over ongoing incidents at the store. While it has pledged to seek ways to work with Beech Grove to limit the number of times that its police force has to respond to calls, incidents continue to happen.
"We're better than that, our community is better than that and I don't want to get a phone call every day saying that somebody pulled a gun at Walmart and has done something out of line," Mayor Buckley told the Star.