Two people died in shopping-rush violence as the 2016 Black Friday sales events got under way across the nation.
One shooting happened on Thanksgiving Day in a Walmart parking lot in Nevada, apparently as a result of a dispute over a parking spot.
In New Jersey early Friday, two people were shot, one fatally, in a parking lot outside a Macy’s store at the Hamilton Mall, the New York Post said.
Also early Friday, in Tennessee, a man was hit and injured when shots were fired at Wolfchase Galleria Mall in Memphis.
The London Daily Mail reported suspects were being sought.
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“It’s very scary, you know, you’re starting off the holiday season and you’re excited about the upcoming times with family and now there’s going to be family who are missing people and their holidays will never be the same,” a shopper in New Jersey told CBS.
The reported road-rage incident, police said, happened late on Thanksgiving Day in the Walmart parking lot.
“Police and the FBI are investigating the Thanksgiving shooting as authorities search for a dark-colored Toyota Camry or Corolla that was driven by a driver described as a light-skinned black male,” the Daily Mail report said.
In New Jersey, the mall had closed at midnight and was due to reopen for bargain hunters at 6 a.m. The shooting occurred between those hours. The Post said police were focusing their attention on a silver SUV in the parking lot.
A shopper said in the report, “It’s sad. 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.”
The Tennessee shooting happened in a parking lot outside a food court area, the Mail said. Shots were fired and a suspect then fled in a Ford Mustang.
“Initial reports indicated no one was injured but a man showed up a Baptist Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound,” the report said.
There, three suspects were in custody.
The report that said from 2006-2014, there have been seven deaths and 98 injuries during Black Friday shopping.
Many stores now open on Thanksgiving Day. The rest open overnight or early Friday to try to cash in. Special prices on limited quantities of certain products create a rush at some stores.
This year’s bargains have included specially priced televisions as low as $70.
Adobe Digital Insights reported more than $1.1 billion already had been spent online by 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, and the National Retailers Foundation forecasts the three-day weekend will produce $8.4 billion in spending.
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