By Elizabeth Findell and Sarah Nassauer
EL PASO, Texas -- Cheers from a receiving line of employees
handing out "El Paso Strong" bracelets greeted each person entering
the Walmart El Paso Supercenter Thursday morning.
The reason for the enthusiasm: The site where a gunman in August
killed 22 people is open again for business.
Earlier, employees met with Walmart Inc. Chief Executive Doug
McMillon and Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner. Workers raised an
American flag on top of the store to full height for the first time
since the shooting and unfurled a banner reading #ELPASOSTRONG. A
permanent "Grand Candela" memorial tower of 22 light-emitting beams
is under construction in the store's parking lot.
Walmart representatives said that reopening the store, which has
been fully renovated since the shooting, is crucial for its workers
to recover. The supercenter, which sits about 2 miles north of the
border, is among the nation's busiest, often packed with a mix of
locals and Mexican citizens. Authorities believe the gunman
targeted it to kill Hispanic people.
The reopening of the store has stoked controversy throughout the
community. But many on Thursday said the reopening let them take
back their store.
El Paso native John Mullady visited the supercenter multiple
times a week before the shooting. He said his wife was too nervous
to let him take their children on reopening day, but he arrived at
6 a.m. -- three hours before the store opened -- to wait. When he
and his mother, Kathleen, walked in the door, the emotion was so
intense they forgot what they planned to buy and ended up walking
around in a fog, grabbing random items.
"We missed it," Mrs. Mullady said of the store, adding that
after the shooting, "We need to carry on."
Many echoed the sentiment, voicing pride in El Paso's
resilience. Martha Ruiz, 68, said the return felt like a
homecoming. Before the shooting, she would often wander the store's
aisles on nights when she couldn't sleep.
In the parking lot, families loaded turkeys into their trunks
for Thanksgiving. A restaurant owner from across the border in
Juarez stocked up on honey mustard, relieved that he could get back
to his normal routine. Young people showed support for the store by
grabbing chips and drink mixers. The line of cars trying to park
backed up down the street.
Some El Paso residents, however, said they would never return.
Arnulfo Rascon, who was shot in the store, opposed the reopening,
saying it won't help the healing. Mr. Rascon, 56, a father of two
and former factory sales manager, struggles to walk after knee
surgeries and still gets emotional reliving Aug. 3. He sees Walmart
in his nightmares, he said.
Mr. Rascon is among more than two dozen victims and family
members of victims who sued Walmart in the wake of the shooting.
The company responded with a cross-claim against the accused
gunman, saying the loss of life was solely his fault.
When Margie Lopez, 68, walked in the door, she didn't hear
cheering, she said. She heard screaming, immediately transporting
her back to the day when she stepped out of her car in the parking
lot and saw a woman running up to her, yelling, "He just killed my
daughter."
She thought visiting again might help her recover from the
trauma. But in the store she was overcome with so much anxiety that
an employee had to help her pay for a single bottle of water.
"Maybe I thought all this I felt would go away," Ms. Lopez said.
"I hope [the reopening] does bring peace to people. But I don't
know if we can ever move past it."
The supercenter employs 375 people, the majority of whom are
returning to work, said store manager Robert Evans. Two employees
were among the 25 wounded in the shooting, one of whom was shot in
the hand, while the other was shot in the buttocks, Mr. Evans said.
One is back at work, and the other plans to return, he added.
Employees received three days of disaster pay and 14 days of
extreme-hardship pay after the shooting, said Delia Garcia, a
spokeswoman for Walmart. They were then transferred to work in
other El Paso-area Walmarts. Since mid-October, they have been back
to work at the superstore, preparing for it to open.
Over the past three months, the store has been gutted and
renovated with a different layout and flooring as well as new
fixtures, employee lounges and patios.
"We want our associates and our customers to see something
different and feel comfortable coming back to our store and getting
on with our lives, " said Mr. Evans. An El Paso native, he has
worked for Walmart 21 years and been manager of the supercenter for
seven.
Authorities have charged Patrick Crusius, 21, in the killings.
Law-enforcement officials said he published a racist posting on the
Web forum 8chan and then traveled some 650 miles from his home in
the suburbs of Dallas to El Paso to kill Mexicans. Mr. Crusius has
pleaded not guilty. His trial hasn't yet been scheduled.
Write to Sarah Nassauer at sarah.nassauer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 14, 2019 18:22 ET (23:22 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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