The shopper who died inside a Los Angeles-area supermarket and was reportedly left in a bakery aisle for hours while the store remained open has been identified.
John Lewis died inside a Vons grocery store in Granada Hills on July 5, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed to The California Post. No additional details about his death were immediately released.
According to CBS Los Angeles, the store continued serving customers for roughly four hours after Lewis died.
Pazion Horner-Smith, a Vons employee who was working as a supervisor at the time, said she and another worker attempted to perform CPR when Lewis suffered a medical emergency inside the store.
She said the situation became even more disturbing after corporate managers allegedly saw Lewis lying on the floor through surveillance cameras and instructed employees to block the area with shopping carts.
“How can anybody do that?” Horner-Smith told CBS Los Angeles. “I mean the lack of empathy is just horrible. It is horrific.”
Horner-Smith said she received a call from someone in corporate telling her to create a barrier around Lewis’ body while shoppers continued moving through the store.
“I’m being called by someone in corporate because they’re looking at the cameras, telling me that I need to barricade the body by using carts,” she said.
Lewis’ grieving relatives were also reportedly made to wait inside the supermarket for mortuary workers to arrive.
“Poor family that’s just sitting there. They can’t even see their loved one,” Horner-Smith said.
“They can’t touch their loved one. They sat in the store for four hours while people continued to shop around their deceased loved one.”
Albertsons, the parent company of Vons, said it was saddened by what happened and expressed sympathy for Lewis’ family.
“We are saddened by this tragic situation, and our thoughts are with the individual’s family and loved ones,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to The California Post.
The company said store employees contacted emergency responders and assisted first responders and police at the scene.
“We work closely with emergency responders and law enforcement to evaluate each situation based on the circumstances present,” the statement continued.
Albertsons said it would not provide further information out of respect for Lewis and his family.
