BROOKLYN, Ohio — Rob Slattery has lived in Brooklyn Ohio for 53 years, but said he's never seen anything like the violent incident that broke out in the Walmart parking lot on Brookpark Road in the early evening hours of July 2.
The incident was captured on video by stunned shoppers in the store parking lot and was posted on Facebook, where it generated more than 1,400 comments and has nearly 100K views.
The video shows one man beating another man who was on the ground. Minutes later, two women opened the door of a red Ford and tried to drag a female driver out of her vehicle. The video showed that the fight continued between both men as a crowd gathered in the parking lot.
Slattery, who was on the scene as safety forces arrived, told News 5 Brooklyn police, fire and EMS did an outstanding job responding and containing the violent incident that continued for several minutes.
“I was disgusted by it," Slattery said. “My family lives in this city, my daughter could have come up to the store and walked right into the middle of that and been endangered. The police and fire, their response to this was just fantastic. There were people running around the parking lot, it was a complete circus. They were punching the hell out of him, nothing gives you the right to do that."
News 5 contacted Brooklyn police for a report on the incident; it's still not clear if anyone was seriously injured or if any arrests were made. News 5 also contacted Walmart corporate headquarters about the parking lot violence, but we're still waiting for a response.
Meanwhile, Slattery believes Walmart needs to evaluate its safety protocols, both inside and outside the store.
“I think the City of Brooklyn at some point in time needs to start taxing these companies, where they’re constantly here," Slattery said. "They’re constantly here for thefts, constantly here for drug overdoses, for acts like this, acts of violence. Walmart allegedly has their own security, but you didn’t see them in that tape."
"The bar should be higher for these companies where you have so many people coming in here, this is not a mom-and-pop little store," Slattery added. "But it’s unacceptable, if one person had a gun there, we’re talking a complete catastrophe.”
