Wednesday, August 19, 2009

William Kaempffer

Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — A Wal-Mart employee who had been reprimanded for poor job performance grabbed an aluminum baseball bat early Tuesday and repeatedly hit an assistant manager, police said.

The attack happened in the store’s toy section at about 12:20 a.m., and George Freibott, the assistant manager, was hit a dozen times with the bat. A female employee also was hit during the fray, police said.

Freibott, 29, of Seymour, suffered “serious injuries” in the assault, police said. He was treated in the emergency room at Yale-New Haven Hospital and was discharged later in the morning.

Police, meanwhile, were searching for the suspect, identified as Barry Griffin, 26, of New Haven, who fled the store before police arrived.

Court records show he had a 2007 conviction for third-degree assault and received a suspended sentence. He has a pending assault case in Superior Court in Meriden, according to a judicial database.

The injured assistant manager told police Griffin had been reprimanded for “poor work.”

Freibott could not be reached for comment.

Michelle Bradford, a corporate spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, referred questions about the incident to authorities.

“We are cooperating with the police, and we hope our assistant manager has a speedy recovery,” she said, declining further comment.

The Wal-Mart is at 315 Foxon Blvd. An employee told police Griffin appeared to be in good spirits earlier during the shift, but his mood turned.

According to police, the incident was captured on the store’s security system. It shows Griffin grabbing a bat from a display rack in the sporting goods section, finding Freibott in the toy area of the store, and then hitting him.