Police expressed confidence today that the woman who shot pepper spray at other customers at a busy Walmart store in Porter Ranch, injuring 20, will be arrested.
A woman shot pepper spray at customers in Walmart during Black Friday. (Photo: Walmart Stores/Creative Commons)
Police should receive security video of the incident in a day or two, said Sgt. A.J. De Bellis of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Station.
The video should be clear enough to help identify the suspect, De Bellis said.
“Eventually this will catch up with her,” De Bellis said. The woman “at the very least” will face “a minimum of one” battery charge for each injured person, De Bellis said.
This was “not a very bright thing (for her) to have done,” De Bellis said Greg Rossiter, Walmart’s director of corporate communications, called the incident an “unfortunate situation.”
“We’re glad everyone seems to be OK,” Rossiter said in a telephone interview from the company’s Bentonville, Ark. headquarters. “We’re cooperating with the investigation and working with law enforcement to provide any camera footage we have.”
There were no other incidents at Southern California Walmart stores that required police involvement, Rossiter told City News Service.
“An unhappy customer” sprayed pepper spray at the Walmart store at 19821 Rinaldi St. around 10:10 p.m. Thanksgiving night, said LAPD Lt. Abel Parga, the Devonshire Station’s watch commander.
The woman “was waiting with other shoppers for some items wrapped in plastic to be released for sale at 10 p.m.,” LAPD Officer P. Rimkunas said.
“When the plastic was ripped off, she sprayed.” There are broadcast reports the woman grabbed an Xbox video game system and purchased it as she left the scene.
Firefighters treated 20 patients for minor injuries, Shawn Lenske of the Los Angeles Fire Department said. All the patients were treated and released, Lenske said shortly before 1 a.m.
One section of the store was cleared while patients were treated and the pepper spray dissipated, Parga said. Meanwhile, the store remained open and those not affected by the pepper spray continued shopping.
Loading ...
Incidents such as these are sad and shameful for the world-view of our country. Just 24 hours after we are supposed to give thanks and show compassion for those in need, all of this comes to surface from the Capitalist mania the public is worked into by Big Business. I wrote an article about the true meaning behind our holiday and a warning about our national disgrace which is Black Friday at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2010/11/wishing-you-and-yours-bountiful-harvest.html