Amid national news coverage and a social media outcry, Walmart executives decided to rehire a Southeast Michigan employee who interrupted a store parking lot attack on a woman.
“We took a step back and looked at all the information,” spokeswoman Ashley Hardie tells John Wisely of the Free Press.
“We realize his intentions were good, and we’ve reached out to him to offer him his job back and let him know that he’s welcome back at the store.”
Hardie said store officials left a message with Kristopher Oswald but had not spoken to him.,
Oswald, 30, is from Linden in Livingston County. He earned $8.70 an hour as an overnight stocking associate.
Kristopher Oswald, 30, earned $8.70 an hour as an overnight stocking associate in Hartland.
(Photo via WXYZ)
Friday morning article:
"The last thing I expected was to not have a job," Kristopher Oswald, 30, tells Kimberly Craig of WXYZ.
Oswald was fired from Walmart this week after he intervened to help a woman who was apparently being assaulted in the parking lot of the store.
It happened around 2:30 a.m. Oct. 13 outside the Walmart store in the Livingston County town of Hartland.
Oswald, who worked stocking pet food on the overnight shift at Walmart, was spending his lunch break in his car when he heard a woman screaming and a man hanging onto the hood of her car.
At first, Oswald wondered if it was just people horsing around recklessly, but when he walked over to see if the woman was really in danger, he says the man began to attack him, punching him in the head while yelling "I'm going to kill you".
The company fired Oswald and the reason given on his termination papers says: "After a violation of company policy on his lunch break, it was determined to end his temporary assignment."
