Man drives into San Jose Walmart, assaults staff and customers

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Police say a drug-addled man was the person who crashed his car into an East San Jose Walmart and bludgeoned customers and staff with a blunt object before he was tackled by onlookers Sunday morning.

Haamid Ade Zaid of Seaside, Calif., was booked into the Santa Clara County jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, hit and run, being under the influence of drugs and resisting arrest, according to the San Jose Police Department.

Zaid is being held without bail in connection with the chaotic attack that rattled an Easter Sunday shopping crowd and ended with four people injured, one seriously. A Walmart employee was among the victims.

It began about 11:15 a.m. PDT when a red two-door Cutlass Salon hit two cars in the parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter at 777 Story Road before crashing through the pharmacy and market entrance, police said. The Cutlass continued a few dozen feet into the store before it crashed into a beer display.

Once the car stopped, police and witnesses say, the driver got out, picked up a blunt object some described as a metal bar, and started attacking people with it. An employee of the store was hit in the head, one witness said.

The melee stopped when onlookers tackled him and held him down until police arrived. Four people injured in the fracas were taken to the hospital, as was the suspect, who was treated and then jailed.

The conditions of the four victims were not immediately known, but none has so far been described as life-threatening.

Following the attack, the store was evacuated, closed, and cordoned off by police. More than 70 people gave witness statements to police.