"CYA" and protect the corporate image at all costs - the public be damned (Safeway is a huge corporation and thus VIMP).  From the article: "Sara Osborne, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Division of Safeway's public relations office, declined to comment Sunday on the condition of the employee, details on the shooting or the store's security...... 'It's our policy not to publicly comment during an active criminal investigation,' she wrote in an email."