The frenzy for Black Friday deals has started early this year, and with it, reports of injury and madness from across the country.
In Los Angeles, California, a woman is being sought by police in connection to a pepper spray incident in Wal-Mart. When a crowd of people started getting to close to the items the accused woman wanted, she unleashed a cloud of mace to fend off the fellow shoppers. About 20 of the shoppers were injured, including children, according to police. “Somehow she was trying to use [the pepper spray] to gain an upper hand,” Lieutenant Abel Parga said.
One eyewitness told reporters, “I guess what triggered it was people started pulling the plastic off the pallets and then shoving and bombarding the display of games. It started with people pushing and screaming because they were getting shoved onto the boxes,” she added. “People started screaming, pulling and pushing each other, and then the whole area filled up with pepper spray.”
Later in the night, around 2 a.m., shots were fired near the Cross Creek Mall in Fayetteville, North Carolina, as shoppers were beginning to congregate. No one was hurt in the shooting, however the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said that one of the suspects continued to fire his gun as he ran into the mall, according to the Associated Press.
In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, one woman wasn’t as lucky. As a woman was being mugged outside a steakhouse, a suspect in the robbery fired several warning shots. One of the stray bullets struck a woman, who was standing outside a near by Wal-Mart, in the foot. Another hit a 25 year-old man. Both of the victims were taken to 25-year-old man were taken to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center for treatment, according to the Herald Online.
In L.A., the Wal-Mart didn’t close, despite the pepper spray incident, and it certainly did not stop determined bargain hunters.
“I don’t care,” one shopper told reporters. “I’m still getting my TV.”