UPDATE: A woman in California has turned herself in to the authorities, but is refusing to explain her actions.

—–
In an incident the police are referring to as “competitive shopping,” a woman at a Walmart store in California’s San Fernando Valley stands accused of attacking her fellow shoppers with pepper spray during last night’s Black Friday door-buster thingamajig.

“I heard screaming and I heard yelling,” one shopper tells the L.A. Times. “Moments later, my throat stung. I was coughing really bad and watering up.”

He says that, within minutes of Walmart announcing that the Black Friday deals had begun, the display in the video game section had been torn down by shoppers and store staffers were trying to hold back the throng of customers while attempting to salvage merchandise.

“People started screaming, pulling and pushing each other, and then the whole area filled up with pepper spray,” another shopper recalls. “I guess what triggered it was people started pulling the plastic off the pallets and then shoving and bombarding the display of games. It started with people pushing and screaming because they were getting shoved onto the boxes.”

In all, reports the Times, 20 customers were injured by the pepper spray attack.

“This was customer-versus-customer ‘shopping rage,'” said an LAPD lieutenant, adding that the woman, who has not yet been identified, apparently used her pepper spray in more than one part of the store. “She was competitive shopping.”

Below is a YouTube video claiming to be shot at the pepper sprayed Walmart:

Shootings, pepper-spray attack mar Wal-Mart Black Friday sales [L.A. Times]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.