Cops in the Chicago suburb of Romeoville shot a suspect in a Kohl's parking lot full of shoppers, WLS-TV reports. This was after 10 p.m. on U.S. Thanksgiving Thursday. Police chased a man running from the store, the ABC affiliate says. Officer jumped into the suspect's car and got dragged and another officer fired three or four shots toward the driver. The car finally stopped, the suspect hit in the shoulder. No details on what merchandise was involved. Nor were shoppers deterred, the Chicago Tribune reports.
In northern New Jersey, police pepper-sprayed a shopper who allegedly tried to attack an officer trying to break up an argument over a TV in a Wal-Mart Thanksgiving evening, the Star-Ledger in Newark reports. Richard Ramos, 23, was taken to Bergen County prison in default of bail.
At a Wal-Mart in Virginia, a man's arm was "sliced to the bone," police told WVVA-TV, an NBC affiliate, in an argument over a parking space Thursday evening. The victim was treated and released in hospital. The suspect was released on $5,000 bond.
Another Wal-Mart, another brawl, another Thanksgiving evening. This one is San Bernardino County in California. Channel 4, the local NBC affiliate, quotes police as saying three people started pushing, shoving and swinging; two were arrested and an officer was slightly injured.
In Knoxville, Tennessee, police tackled an impatient Wal-Mart shopper with a weapon Thursday evening. The suspect was demanding to get in early. WATE-TV said mysteriously that the suspect "experienced a medical issue and was taken to an area hospital. No charges have been filed." Blackfridayitis, perhaps.
Store managers at a Wal-Mart in Upland, Long Island, shut their doors for two hours Friday morning when "customers began tearing into merchandise" that was wrapped up and not supposed to be on sale until 5 a.m., the Los Angeles Times reports. The belligerent shoppers were evicted, everybody's carts were emptied and Black Friday warriors sent to wait it out in the parking lot. Even then, the crowd started yelling and banging on the doors and trying to sneak in through the garden section, police reported.