Shootings, Pepper-Sprayed Shoppers on Black Friday
A string of Black Friday violence, including a shooting outside a Walmart and pepper-sprayed shoppers, swept the country during the early hours of the morning.
Police said a man was shot in the parking lot of a San Leandro, Calif., Walmart around 1:50 a.m., after he refused to give up his purchases to a group of thieves.
“It looks like these guys were looking for a crime of opportunity,” Sgt. Mike Sobek of the San Leandro Police Department told ABCNews.com.
The victim, whom police refused to identify, was shopping with his family, who managed to hold down one suspect until police arrived. The others fled, but Sobek said the police were still reviewing surveillance footage for clues.
In Los Angeles, one woman proved some people would do anything for a good deal.
Twenty people suffered minor injuries after the woman doused the eyes of shoppers at a Walmart in the Porter Ranch area of Los Angeles shortly after 10:20 p.m.
“Somehow she was trying to use it to gain an upper hand,” Abel Parga, a lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department, told the Associated Press.
The woman reportedly used the pepper-spray tactic in different areas of the store to gain quick access to the deals on her list.
Shopper John Lopez wasn’t hit, but compared the scene to a riot.
“[The victims'] faces were red,” he told ABC News Radio. “This one guy was coming up to my wife going, ‘Call an ambulance! Call an ambulance!’”
During the melee, the woman was able to pay for her purchases and slip away before police arrived, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Elsewhere, two men fought over jewelry deals at a Walmart in Kissimmee, Fla.
Police arrived at the store shortly after 1 a.m. to defuse the fight. One man was arrested when he resisted as officers tried to escort him out of the store.
In another Walmart-centric act of rage, Tonia Robbins, 55, was shot in the foot while thieves stole her purse outside a Myrtle Beach, S.C., store shortly after 1 a.m.
The suspects fled after Ann Robbins, 58, pulled out a revolver and fired three warning shots into the air, the police report stated.
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