Black Friday took a tragic turn this year as special deals seemed to make some people trigger-happy in three cities across the United States. At least four people were shot during Black Friday sales, and two of them were killed. In Reno, Nevada, a fight over a parking space on Thursday night outside a Walmart appears to have led to a shooting that killed a 33-year-old man. Police are now saying the shooting may have been self-defense, because the man who was killed may have been “armed with a stick or a bat and hit the shooter’s car before the weapon was fired,” reports the Associated Press.
Then early Friday morning, a 21-year-old man from Atlantic City, New Jersey, was shot and killed outside a mall in the parking lot next to a Macy’s, which was the only store open at the time. His 26-year-old brother was also shot in the leg outside the Hamilton Mall. It isn’t clear what led up to the shooting, reports the Press of Atlantic City. “It’s sad,” one shopper at the scene of the shooting told CBS. “We’ve been doing this, me and my girls for probably about 10 years now, just for the fun of going out—a girls’ night and trying to get some special sales—and it’s getting scary now.”
In Tennessee, a man was wounded during a shooting outside Wolfchase Galleria Mall in Memphis on Thursday night at around 11:15 p.m. It’s unclear what led up to the shooting but it took place as shoppers were taking part in early Black Friday sales. A 19-year-old man has been arrested for unlawful possession of a weapon.
The Black Friday violence wasn’t just limited to the United States this year. A police officer in Leeds, England was attacked by an apparent shoplifter during a Black Friday sale. The police officer “was slashed across the neck, face, and hand just after 9 a.m.,” reports the Express. The injuries were not life-threatening, and the suspect was immediately apprehended.
