After an incident last Sunday where someone said over the P.A. system at a NJ Wal-Mart, "Attention, Wal-Mart customers: All black people, leave the store now," police have now made an arrest. Who this person—another shopper? an employee?— is remains unknown for now because Star-Ledger reports that the Washington Township Police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office "will make a formal announcement" this afternoon.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Deisha Galbreth said, "Our investigation determined that a specific customer in the store may be responsible and we have turned this evidence over to police. Additionally, we have already updated our intercom system in this store to prevent this from happening in the future." The Washington Township Wal-Mart has 25 phones, some publicly accessible, where the message could have been made and delivered over the P.A. system. One former employee, though, said it was easy to make storewide pages, "They could do better things to secure those phones, but they don't follow those protocols. That's Wal-Mart."
Galbreth also said, "We're appalled by this incident and are amazed that anyone could be so backward and mean-spirited in this day and age. The words were incredibly hurtful to our customers -- especially our African-American shoppers -- and we regret that it happened more than we can say."
UPDATE: The authorities say the person behind the remark was a 16-year-old male from Atlantic City. According to the Star-Ledger, "He faces harassment and bias intimidation charges... Police would not identify him or the other person he was with Sunday because they are both juveniles... Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton said the punishment for the crime, a fourth degree offense, would depend upon the if the accused has a prior record. Authorities also declined to give the prankster's race."
