Black Friday 2015 Shopping Leads To Kentucky Mall Brawls
The holidays should be a time to reflect on all of the things we have to be thankful for and spending time with loved ones. It should not be about trampling one another, or fist fighting a fellow customer, to receive the best shopping deals on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year that takes place each year on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
It seems as though there are more reports of violence, even death, occurring every year when shoppers take to the malls or other shopping centers to grab the “doorbuster” sales. To kick off Black Friday 2015, two separate mall brawls broke out in Kentucky, and videos of the incidents have already started circulating on social media.
The first brawl broke out on Thanksgiving night at the Mall St. Matthews in Louisville, Kentucky. According to the New York Daily News, two unidentified men started fist-fighting one another in front of a crowd of onlookers. Two other men joined in the brawl, knocking a woman to the ground who was trying to avoid the fight. The brawl was eventually broken up by a mall security officer, and one of the men was led away by members of the crowd, but not before stopping to pick up his shopping bags. As of now, it is not known if the men will face criminal charges. A video of the altercation was shared on Twitter by a user named Taylor Stewart.
Huge ass fight at st. Matthews mall. pic.twitter.com/bFF39Vw5Wk
— Taylor Stewart (@tstewart5725) November 27, 2015
The second Kentucky mall brawl took place in Florence, Kentucky. Fox News reports that there were at least seven people seen trading punches outside of a Forever 21 store in a local mall. Again, a video of the brawl was uploaded to Twitter. In both of the Kentucky mall brawl videos, bystanders can be heard shouting “World Star,” which is a “reference to a hip hop website that aggregates fight videos into monthly compilations.”
WORRRRLDSTAAAAAR pic.twitter.com/SEuGy40nwR
— yung wifi (@DaddyWeaknd) November 27, 2015
Kentucky was not the only state to have reports of violence while customers were out on Black Friday. A woman reportedly beat a man with a chair outside of a Best Buy store in Springfield, Virginia. Ahmad Shukrey arrived at the electronics store at approximately 12 p.m. on Wednesday to wait in line for the store’s deals to begin. An unidentified woman placed a chair in front of Ahmad to hold her spot in line and then left the area, not returning until approximately 9 p.m. When she tried to get back in the front of the line, Ahmad called her out and ultimately received a beating for doing so.
“She was angry, and I was telling her, ‘No, you’re not getting in the front of the line. I’ve been here since 12,'” Shukrey said. “And she proceeds to attack me with the chair, pushing into my friend, knocking me over and twisting my ankle.”‘
Steven Boone, who was also waiting in line and witnessed the attack, said the woman refused to calm down and was eventually arrested by the police.
“And she started resisting arrest and while she was resisting arrest, she actually hit an officer,” Boone said.
The latest brawls are not the first of their kind. BlackFridayDeathCount.com has been keeping track of the number of deaths and injuries to take place on Black Friday since 2006. Since the website started keeping track of the incidents, seven people have died and 98 others have been injured. In 2008, a worker at a Wal-Mart in Long Island was trampled to death by oblivious shoppers who were scrambling to find the best deals of the holiday season.
[Photo via Shutterstock]
