The 7 Worst Black Friday Disasters

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Black Friday, over the course of recent years, has begun to cast a shadow over the holiday season.

Considered the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, most retailers open early on this day, offering steep discounts on hot items. Although its origins are uncertain, the most likely source of the term, “Black Friday,” came from police officers who used it to describe the traffic mayhem occurring during the two shopping days after Thanskgiving, which was promoted by retailers as the official start of the shopping season.

It has been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, compounded by the fact that many employers give their workers this day off. This unofficial shopping holiday is marked by great deals, excited shoppers, and pre-holiday fun.

But it is also marked by hysteria, long work hours for retail workers, injuries, and even deaths.

The rush to lay hands on hot deals has ended in tragedy and disaster numerous times since 2006, resulting in stampedes, brawls, gunfights, and robberies galore, and making Black Friday a risky proposition for those entering crowded stores.

To help you be aware of what can happen, let’s take a look at 7 of the worst Black Friday disasters in recent history.

Wal-Mart Trampling

In 2008, on the morning of Black Friday, over 2000 people gathered outside of the Valley Stream Wal-Mart in Long Island, NY. It was 5 AM, and the doors were still locked. The crowd began to press against the entryway with dangerous force.

Inside the store, manager Steve Sooknanan arranged several of his strongest employees at the entrance in order to help anyone who fell during the inevitable stampede. One of those men was Jdimytai Damour, a 34-year old man who had been working at the store for a week.

Up to this point, there had been Black Friday injuries, but never a death. This day changed that.

When the workers noticed a pregnant woman being crushed against the store’s glass doors by the pressure of the crowd, they opened them just enough to let her in, but the crowd took advantage of the moment, surging in and literally breaking down the doors in their desperation for flat-screen televisions and half-price blenders.

Those doors fell on Damour, and pressed down on him with the weight of the crowd as it flowed over him. The pregnant woman, fortunately, escaped the incident with only bruises. Damour, however, died beneath the feet of the crowd that morning.

In the resulting court case, Wal-Mart was not held responsible for the incident.

Shooting at Toys-R-Us

Lost Angeles Times

In 2008, two Black Friday shoppers engaged one another in a gunbattle at a Toys-R-Us in Palm Desert, CA.

This particular incident began with a fight between two female shoppers, both of whom had their children with them at the time. They began punching one another, one of them sporting a bloody nose.

The fight prompted a man connected to one of the women to brandish a gun. In response, another man pulled his own weapon, took aim at the first man, and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened—the man forgot to cock his weapon.

The first man fled, with the second man in pursuit, finally readying and firing his weapon, striking the first man. Encountering a dead end in the electronics section of the store, the first man pulled his own weapon, returned fire, striking the second man. Within moments, the first man slumped over a cash register, and passed out from his wounds.

Both men later died of their injuries.

Collapsed Man Ignored

Sometimes, Black Friday deaths or injuries occur not because of trampling or violence, but because of a medical condition that goes unnoticed in the rush for great deals on merchandise.

In 2011, 61-year old Walter Vance was shopping at Target on Black Friday, when he suddenly collapsed onto the West Virginia store’s floor. He had been shopping for Christmas decorations early out of excitement for the upcoming holiday season.

What is especially troubling about this is the way other customers handled the situation. Witnesses say that Vance went unnoticed as shoppers stepped by, around, and even over him as they searched for bargains. They swarmed around him, ignoring his inert form.

Vance’s family was shocked. Sue Compton, Vance’s co-worker, speaking of the incident, asked the question: “How could you not notice someone was in trouble? I just don’t understand if people didn’t help, what their reason was, other than greed because of a sale.”

Crowd Injures Teenage Girl

In yet another Wal-Mart incident in 2011—a trend, it seems—a teenage girl was knocked down and trampled by shoppers in a rush to catch a sale on electronic items.

When the crowds rushed in, the unnamed teenager was caught up in the flow of bodies, swept off her feet and onto the ground, where she was stepped on by the crowd. Fortunately, her injuries weren’t life threatening.

Contrary to popular opinion, most crowd-related injuries occur not when people are fleeing, but when they’re moving steadily toward something they want. This type of crowd tends to be tightly packed, making it difficult or impossible to turn back, and any who fall are simply swept beneath the feet others who are, themselves, being pushed along by the force of the crowd.

This pressure can be very intense—officials have found metal beams bent by the force of a group of human bodies, beams that take over 1000 pounds of pressure to deform.

In the face of such a force, this young girl had little chance of escape, and was lucky to come away relatively unscathed.

Crowd Injures Elderly Woman

John Partipilo

A cheap piece of electronics is never worth a human being’s life.

In a recent 2015 incident, a scramble for a television set ended badly for an elderly woman.

A 23-year old El Paso man was arrested after stepping on an elderly woman, who had fallen in the rush to obtain one of several discounted television sets from a local Wal-Mart.

A police officer saw the older woman go down, followed by the man stepping on her, and when the officer tried to intervene, the man refused to release his ill-gotten television.

When the officer attempted to subdue the man, a scuffle ensued, and the three-year veteran officer was struck multiple times by the man, who then proceeded to try to choke the officer.

Never a good move.

The policeman soon gained control over the man, who was charged with assault, among other crimes, and placed into the El Paso Detention Facility.

Wal-Mart Parking Lot Shooting

Black Friday incidents don’t confine themselves to the inside of stores—they spill outside, as well, onto the streets in the form of exhausted drivers, onto the sidewalks in the form of robberies, and into store parking lots, as we’re about to see here.

In 2012, a disagreement over a parking space outside a Wal-Mart escalated when guns were drawn, bringing terror to what was, otherwise, a festive and fun day of shopping.

Officers arrived, summed by reports of gunfire, to find two people wounded—a man and a woman—who were then taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The two were heading to the store when they entered into a confrontation with a fellow driver, both parties trying for the same parking space in a busy area.

In the next moments, shots rang out, leaving the two injured and sending shoppers fleeing for the store, and for the safety of cover. Huddled shoppers hid in restrooms, calling 9-1-1 to report the incident.

Pepper Spray Madness

One of the most publicized Black Friday disasters occurred in 2011, and involved a little pepper spray, and a lot of rage.

A mother of three shot pepper spray into a crowd of shoppers to keep them away from a Wii video game she wanted to purchase.

Police reported that the woman began spraying as soon as the coverings were removed from the items she wanted—she used the pepper spray to get ahead of the rest of the customers, not in any kind of self-defense. The police later described the incident as “customer-versus-customer shopping rage”.

Up to 20 people suffered minor injuries due to the spray, which can cause itching, burning skin, shortness of breath, coughing, and swelling of the eyes, nose, and throat. In some people, the reaction can be much worse.

The California woman was able to pay for her merchandise and leave the store, but later surrendered herself to police.

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