| 7seven | 11-25-2011 08:11 AM |
Black Friday shopping related :facepalm: Quote:
Black Friday got off to a dark start in the U.S. as several shootings, a bomb scare and a pepper-spraying shopper marred the annual post-Thanksgiving buying blitz.
The mayhem began late Thursday, as 15 people, including children, were injured after a woman reportedly pepper-sprayed other shoppers at a Los Angeles-area Walmart store.
A fire captain described Thursday night's incident as an act of "competitive shopping," according to the Los Angeles Times.
L.A. Fire Capt. James Carson told the newspaper the woman had armed herself with pepper spray to get the edge on her fellow shoppers at the store in the Porter Ranch neighbourhood.
She used the spray in several areas of the store, he said.
Twenty customers, including children, were reportedly hurt in the incident. Victims reported irritation of the skin, eye and throat.
The woman is still being sought by authorities, according to reports.
As well, a shopper was shot early Friday during a robbery outside a San Francisco-area Walmart, according to NBC News. He is in critical but stable condition at a local hospital.
The victim was carrying purchases to his car with his family when several people approached them and demanded they hand over the goods.
A fight broke out, and one suspect pulled out a gun and shot one of the victims, NBC News reported Friday.
Police have a suspect, an adult male in his 20s, in custody, the news agency reported.
In a third incident, a 55-year-old woman was shot during a robbery near a Walmart in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Just after 1 a.m., two men demanded she hand over her purse as she stood at the trunk of her car, and then shot her in the foot, NBC News reported on Friday.
As well, an explosive device was found in a refrigerator inside a break room at an Arizona Walmart Friday, according to an NBC News report. No further details were immediately available.
The attacks are just the latest incidents of violence on the mega-shopping-sales day in the U.S.
In 2008, a 34-year-old employee at a Walmart in Valley Stream, New York, was trampled to death by a crowd of about 2,000 shoppers, some of whom refused to stop their stampede after he was knocked down.
Last year, on Black Friday, a woman was arrested at a toy store in Wisconsin after threatening to shoot shoppers who reportedly had objected to her cutting in line.
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Read more: Shoppers shot, pepper-sprayed in U.S. Black Friday mayhem
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