Black Friday shopper uses pepper spray for ‘competitive’ edge

Published 10:49 am Friday, November 25, 2011

A few violent incidents broke out across the country on Black Friday as millions of shoppers rushed into stores.

The early morning crowds were mostly peaceful, but Los Angeles authorities say 20 people at a local Walmart store suffered minor injuries when a woman used pepper spray to gain a “competitive” shopping advantage shortly after the store opened on Thursday evening. In Fayetteville, N.C., police are looking for two suspects after gunfire erupted early Friday at Cross Creek Mall. And police say two women have been injured and a man charged after a fight broke out at an upstate New York Walmart.

Later in the morning, a grandfather in a Walmart in Buckeye, Ariz., was reportedly roughed up by police after the man allegedly put a game in his waistband so that he could lift his grandson out of the crowd. Witnesses told the station that police slammed the man to the ground — possibly thinking he was stealing the game.

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Adding to that, some Occupy Wall Street protesters, which turned up for the Macy’s midnight opening, are expected to plan flash mobs and other events later in the day in places like Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Boise, Idaho to urge people to reconsider shopping at national chains on Black Friday.