Incident Investigation Report Date of Incident: Monday 8/23/2021 Time of Incident: 9:36am - (9:31am - camera time – 5 min. slow) Date of Report: 8/23/21 – 8/24/21 Employees Involved: Zachary Edelen, Christian Everidge, Shyanna Walling, Jessica Robison Witnesses to Incident: Frank Stamper, Bailey Duggan, Sada Tucker in addition to all involved EE’s. Incident Location: Bagged Candy Department, lower level At approximately 9:36 am on Monday 8/23/21 Christian Everidge returns to the downstairs level of the Bagged Candy department. Supervisor Shyanna Walling, packer Jessica Robison are at the computer desk, Rena Leach is prepping her glue machine, Frank Stamper, Sada Tucker and Bailey Duggan are packing on the leftmost table near the candy racks. As Mr. Everidge signs in on the restroom sheet (approx. 9:36:38am) employee Zachary Edelen can be seen on camera turning to look at Mr. Everidge. This is when witnesses state that Mr. Edelen began to verbally antagonize Mr. Everidge. At 9:31:43 Mr. Edelen again looks over at Mr. Everidge, it is unclear if there was any verbal communication at this time. 9:31:44am – Mr. Edelen again looks at Mr. Everidge, reported to be verbally instigating Mr. Everidge at this time about having a physical altercation. Witness reports state that at this time Mr. Edelen was very loud, shouting things such as “Do you want to go?, “We can fight” , “I’m not afraid of you” Jessica? 9:31:48am – Mr. Edelen looks at Mr. Everidge again in what appears to be more verbal communication between the 2. 9:31:52 Mr. Everdige tells his supervisor Shyanna Walling “ 9:31:59am – Christian Everidge walks the long way around shipping skids to avoid crossing paths with Mr. Edelen. 9:32:04am – Mr. Edelen & Mr. Everidge make eye contact in what appears to be continued verbal communication. 9:32:04am – 9:32:17am – Continued eye contact/verbal communication 9:32:18am – Mr. Everidge goes to get his gloves from the racking as normal, no issues arise while passing Mr. Edelen. 9:32:22am – Mr. Everidge gets to glove rack and turns around to face Mr. Edelen in what appears to be an escalating verbal disagreement. Witness reports indicate at this time Mr. Edelen began to become very aggressive and shouting One witness report stated “I thought he was going to charge him, you could see the anger in his face.” All eye witness accounts deemed Mr. Edelen as the primary aggressor in the incident. 9:32:32am – Supervisor Shyanna Walling overhears Mr. Everidge and Mr. Edelen arguing and overhears Mr. Edelen asking Mr. Everidge if he would like to have a physical altercation. Security video and all witness accounts align that at this time Shyanna Walling hollered out to both EE’s “that’s enough, you guys need to stop & knock it off now.” 9:32:33am – Mr. Edelen appears to have verbal backtalk with his supervisor Shyanna Walling, witness reports indicate at this time pointing at Mr. Everidge, Mr. Everidge no longer communicating with Mr. Edelen (looking towards desk). At this time the entire department 9:32:40am – Mr. Everidge and Mr. Edelen both appear to be verbally communicating complaints on the other to Shyanna Walling. At this point, Mr. Everidge turns his back to Mr. Edelen. Witness accounts align that Mr. Everidge stopped communicating with Mr. Edelen at this point, said “I don’t have time for this” and there are no other witness reports of any verbal communication between the Mr. Everidge & Mr. Edelen after this time. Mr. Edelen remained in department without issue and finished out the rest of shift until 12:00pm. The incident was reported to the HR department by Shyanna Walling at approx. 11:15am on 8/23/21 when the department dispersed for lunch break. In conclusion, after conducting interviews with all 8 department employees : 0 witnesses reported any inappropriate action/communication by the department supervisor. 0 witnessed reported any physical violence or physically intimidating behavior. 7 witnesses reported loud verbal communication by Zachary Edelen and addressed hi m as the primary aggressor in the incident. 4 witnesses individually disclosed that Mr. Edelen routinely picks on/teases Mr. Everidge about Justin Beiber and/or “crushes” in department and attempts to instigate a reaction consistently. Due to these reports the HR department made the decision to transfer Mr. Edelen out of Bagged Candy. 0 witnesses reported any violent or aggressive behavior from Mr. Everidge, including threat of “burying alive”. A statement was collected from each involved employee and all team members that witnessed the incident. From the given reports and the security tape, Squire Boone Caverns Inc., can determine that no physical threat of violence appears to have happened. The supervisor acted appropriately in accordance with company policy and verbally issued instruction to both Mr. Everidge and Mr. Edelen to stop all communication and return to work. Nothing inappropriate was reported by any staff in regards to Shyanna Walling’s handling of the situation. No reports supported Mr. Edelen’s claim that Shyanna made a comment about burying him alive. The security tape also shows that Shyanna was not around Zach but rather at the computer desk and clearly intervenes for a brief moment to holler “calm down, go back to work” Every eyewitness reports this was the only thing said by Shyanna. Given the distance between Zach and Shyanna it is safe to assume that had any inappropriate remarks been made by Shyanna they would have had to have been at a very loud volume for Zach and everyone else in department to hear, they were just too far apart for this accusation to be credible.
