Twenty Wal-Mart shoppers –including children — were victims of pepper spraying attacks just minutes after the Porter Ranch, California store opened its doors for an early Black Friday sale. Police are searching for an unknown woman who attacked her fellow shoppers Thanksgiving evening to gain an advantage and access to limited quantities of Wal-Mart specials.
“This was customer-versus-customer ‘shopping rage,'” Los Angeles Police Lt. Abel Parga.told the L.A. Times.
The woman used the spray in more than one area of the Wal-Mart “to gain preferred access to a variety of locations in the store,” said Los Angeles Fire Capt. James Carson.
“She was competitive shopping,” he said.
Reports of pepper-spraying by police, mostly on Occupy Wall Street protestors, have drawn the ire of the nation, but the fact is that pepper-spray — a chemical weapon valued for its effectiveness and low cost — is legal for purchase in most states.