Bert Atienza, Walmart customer beaten to death by parents of teen Walmart employee after shopping cart incident at Norfolk, Virginia store. Wife, Josephine Atienza recalls episode as teen worker’s parents, Travis Lathan White and Erika Latrice Mitchell face second degree murder charges which they are now contesting as ‘too onerous’ as they had only come to ‘protect’ their teen daughter.
Walmart, the grocery store to America’s cheap, calamatous and deadly…
An elderly Walmart customer is alleged to have been beaten to death following a dispute over a shopping cart at a Virginia store outlet over the summer.
Confrontation over shopping cart leads to Walmart customer’s death
Bert Atienza according to the victim’s wife was ‘violently’ assaulted by the parents of a teen employee who he’d confronted after the teen nearly ramming his wife with a shopping cart.
Atienza, 77, died of blunt head trauma at a hospital on June 8, a day after two people attacked him inside a Walmart in Norfolk, Va., WTKR reported.
‘My husband was still able to speak, he said, ‘Help me, get up,’ but I told him, ‘no you’re bleeding. Your mouth is bleeding. Ambulance is coming,’ Bert’s wife Josephine Atienza told the outelt.
‘I look at him again. He has no more consciousness.’
Teen Walmart worker parents descend store to ‘protect’ teen daughter
Bert and his wife of 42-years had gone grocery shopping after a morning at church when a 17-year-old female employee ran down along the aisle the couple was in, almost clipping Josephine with a cart.
‘He said, ‘You almost hit my wife with your heavy cart, and you did not even say excuse me or apologize to her,’ the grieving wife recalled.
‘If he sees things that he doesn’t like, he will tell it to you straightforward. That’s how it is. He doesn’t care who you are,’ Josephine said.
Atienza and the unidentified employee argued for a moment before the Walmart worker threw a can towards the couple as they walked away, the wife recalled.
The teen allegedly called her parents, leading to Travis White and Erika Mitchell ‘hunting down’ the elderly couple.
Argument leads to Walmart customer being ‘physically’ confronted by teen worker’s parents
Bert Atienza was browsing a shelf in one of the aisles when just on 3.15 p.m, Sunday, June 7, White and Mitchell allegedly attacked the 77-year-old as their working daughter looked on, according to store surveillance video obtained by WTKR.
The elderly shopper was shoved from the back, grabbed and punched as onlookers walked away.
Atienza was then shoved into the shelving unit and collapsed to the ground, as one of the suspects kicked the injured man.
‘They crowded my husband, one of the adults hit him in the face. He fell down on the floor. I was terrified. I don’t know what’s going on,’ Josephine recalled.
‘While he’s on the floor, they’re still kicking him and I told them stop. My husband has heart problems,’ Josephine said.
Josephine was left sitting on the ground holding her husband in her lap store surveillance video showed.
Bert Atienza spoke briefly to his wife but then lost consciousness prior to help arriving.
Atienza was rushed to a hospital where he died the next day of blunt force trauma His death was ruled a homicide according to medical officials.
Walmart worker parents allege murder charges are too onerous
White, 44, and Mitchell, 42, were arrested days later and charged with malicious wounding by mob, aggravated malicious wounding and conspiracy to commit a felony, WAVY reported.
The charges have since been upgraded to second-degree murder.
The defendants’ attorney contested the charges, saying the suspected killers were defending their daughter and the alleged assault was not premeditated.
‘They did not go there, intending for any of this to happen. It was an emotional situation. Their daughter called them. She was distraught. They went, as any parent would do, to try to make sure that their daughter was safe and then the situation kind of erupted. It was spontaneous almost,’ James Broccoletti told WTKR.
‘We think that the evidence establishes at best an assault because they punched the gentleman, there is some evidence my client may have kicked him, but that’s simple assault, that’s a misdemeanor. There is nothing that goes further than that, that indicates that there was any chance or likelihood or probability that this man would die as a result of this.’
They are being held in Norfolk jail without bond.
Their teen daughter, who no longer works for Walmart, was charged with assault and battery, aggravated malicious wounding and conspiracy to commit a felony.
The teen is being held at Norfolk Juvenile Detention Center, but officials are withholding her name because of her age.
Not immediately clear is why the teen employee had been running down the aisle at her place of work, the training Walmart had provided the worker along with an understanding of safety and store protocol and why instead of seeking out her parents, the teen hadn’t gone to a store manager? Walmart to date has not addressed the tragedy.
Related posts:
