| fliptuner | 11-25-2011 05:04 PM |
sorry, no video but: AFP: US bargain-hunting turns violent on Black Friday Quote:
LOS ANGELES — Shootings, fights and a pepper spray attack marred the Black Friday stampede of bargain hunters that traditionally kicks off the US holiday shopping season after the Thanksgiving holiday.
In the most sensational incident, a woman pepper-sprayed other shoppers at a Los Angeles area Wal-Mart store to beat out fierce competition for sought-after electronics merchandise during a "doorbuster" sale.
The woman, an unidentified Hispanic in her 30s, was "trying to get advantage over the items being sold on sale," when she turned a can of mace on the other customers, Los Angeles Police Department Sergeant J. Valle said.
He said at least 10 customers, including children, were injured during the incident at a Wal-Mart store in the Porter Ranch neighborhood and had filed police complaints.
A fire department spokesman told the Los Angeles Times that 20 people were treated for injuries from the incident, many complaining of burning in their throats and skin and eye irritations.
"People started screaming, pulling and pushing each other, and then the whole area filled up with pepper spray," Alejandra Seminario told the Times.
"I did not want to get involved. I was too scared. I just stayed in the toy aisle."
The woman slipped out of the store before police arrived, and authorities were still trying to identify her, Valle said.
"It was chaotic, just crowded and we're trying to see whether this person was on the (surveillance) video or whether she made any purchases," he said.
He said the woman would face felony battery charges, with jail time and fines, if she's caught.
In another Black Friday incident, a shopper was in "critical but stable" condition after would-be robbers shot him in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in San Leandro, California, police Sergeant Mike Sobek told AFP.
The man and his shopping companions were approached by "several" assailants after 1:00 am as they walked to their car.
One suspect was arrested but it was unclear whether he was the shooter, and the gun was not recovered.
A pair of attackers shot a 55-year-old woman in the foot at a parking lot near a Wal-Mart in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, during another apparent robbery attempt, Sergeant Janet Hardee said. They also hit her son over the head with a gun as he tried to defend his mother.
The attackers were driven off by the woman's sister, who fired shots into the air from her own gun.
Police also were looking for at least two suspects who unleashed chaos after firing shots at a Fayetteville, North Carolina mall, The Fayetteville Observer reported.
"It's scary because I have young children and my niece was with me so what if one of those bullets had hit her or someone who had nothing at all to do with that," shopper Eddrena Wiggins told ABC11-WTVD television. "And it's like, they didn't think about the other people that were here.
And in Kissimmee, Florida, the Orlando Sentinel said a man was arrested after taking a swing at police officers as they wrestled him to the ground to stop a fight at a Wal-Mart jewelry counter.
A brawl also broke out in the electronics department of a Wal-Mart in Rome, New York, shortly after midnight, WSYR television reported. Two people were taken to hospital.
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