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Walmart Black Friday Brawl: Video Shows El Paso Shopper Punching Police Officer During Fracas

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 08:18 PST, Nov 27, 2015

A Black Friday brawl broke out at an El Paso Walmart with video on Facebook showing a crowd of shoppers fighting over the last big-screen television and one person punching a police officer in the face.

The Walmart fight was captured on video and shared online, where it caught the attention of several national news outlets.

In one video, shared on KLAQ, police were seen wading through the group of people who were all tangled up around a bundle of plastic wrapping and boxes on the store’s floor. As police pulled several shoppers out of the fray, one man squared up and took a swing at an officer, appearing to connect at the man’s face.

The brawl at the El Paso Walmart was not the only Black Friday fracas. As stores filled up with hundreds — or sometimes even thousands — of shoppers, tempers flared and many fights broke out. Several videos hit the Internet on Friday showing fights, including a brawl at the Mall St. Matthews in Louisville, Kentucky on Thanksgiving night. A pair of people were seen trading punches, with the brawl sending one woman to the floor before police were able to intervene.

The New York Daily News, also had video of a Black Friday brawl at another Kentucky mall, this one reportedly over a pair if Air Jordan sneakers.

Details were light on many of the incidents, with videos not showing if the fighting led to arrests or charges in many of the cases. It is also not confirmed that the fights did indeed take place during Black Friday 2015. As in years past, some older videos are sometimes circulated..

Black Friday brawls have become something of an unfortunate annual side-effect of the year’s biggest shopping day, as people rushing to get the best deals seem to throw out all courtesy.

One of the darkest moments came in 2008, when Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death by a mob of shoppers trying to rush into a Walmart on Long Island.

Damour, a stock clerk, was trying to contain the crowd but the 6-foot-5 man ended up being pushed against the store’s sliding-glass double doors and he was killed in the crush.

Store employees had called police hours before Damours’ death to complain that crowds were trying to push past employees to get into the store. Police arrived at the scene with bullhorns in an attempt to disperse the crowd, but officers later left and claimed that dealing with crowds was “not in their job description.”

The death led to a number of safety improvements for stores hosting Black Friday deals, and is still difficult for Damour’s family.

“It’s very difficult to cope,” his cousin, Ralph Damour, told the New York Daily News. “I never shop on Black Friday. That would be dishonoring his memory.”

“We used to play together when we were younger,” the cousin added. “He was a great guy.”

The incident also led to felony charges of reckless endangerment against Walmart. The retailer later settled for $2 million to avoid criminal prosecution, with $400,000 going to Damour’s family and other injured victims.

“With all likelihood that this matter would not conclude for a long time, we’ve decided to put it behind us and withdraw our appeal,” Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove told Newsday at the time.

The Black Friday brawl at the El Paso Walmart didn’t end very well for the man who punched a police officer. At the end of the video, he could be seen on the ground and in handcuffs. No other information was available on his arrest.

[Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images]

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