The FINANCIAL — Black Friday's typical jostling and jockeying took a more ominous turn during this year's bargain-hunting ritual with a shooting, a pepper spraying and other episodes of violence that left several people injured.
In the most serious case, a robber shot a shopper who refused to give up his purchases outside a San Leandro, California, Walmart store, leaving the victim hospitalised in critical but stable condition.
Police in San Leandro, about 25 kilometres east of San Francisco, said the victim and his family were walking to their car around 1.45am on Friday when they were confronted by a group of men who demanded their shopping items. When the family refused, a fight broke out, and one of the robbers pulled a gun and shot the man, said Sergeant Mike Sobek.At another Walmart in a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles, a woman trying to get the upper hand to buy cheap electronics unleashed pepper spray on a crowd of shoppers, injuring to 20 people, police said.
The attack took place at about 10.20pm on Thursday shortly after doors opened for the sale at the Walmart in Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley.
The store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox video game players, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping, when the woman began spraying people "in order to get an advantage", police Sergeant Jose Valle said.
Ten people were slightly injured by the pepper spray and ten others suffered minor bumps and bruises.
The woman got away in the confusion, but could face felony battery charges if found, Valle said.
Meanwhile, police in suburban Phoenix came under fire when a video was posted online showing a 54-year-old grandfather on the floor of a Walmart store with a bloody face.
Police said he was subdued trying to shoplift. The video, posted on YouTube, shows Jerald Allen Newman unconscious and bloodied.
Larry Hall, assistant chief of Buckeye police, said Newman was resisting arrest and it appeared the officer acted within reason.
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