By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

A crowd of shoppers trampled a store worker to death while rushing toward Black Friday specials at a Long Island Wal-Mart.

It's an appalling event, made even more newsworthy by the fact that American shoppers have been encouraged in recent days to make sure they get out and spend money to boost the economy.

Obviously, no one wanted anything like this event to occur.

Witnesses said a worker at a Wal-Mart in Long Island died after he tried to hold shoppers back before the scheduled 5 a.m. opening of the store.

But the stock clerk was run over by "unruly crowds," according to a report in the New York Daily News.

"As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him," the paper reported.

Police closed the store during the investigation of the death.

That decision probably angered a lot of shoppers but it was the proper thing to do.