13 Most Brutal Black Friday Injuries/Deaths By John Barryman [32 more lists]

In honor of the busiest shopping day of the year, here are 13 Black Friday injuries, incidents and deaths that should pretty much convince everyone to stay the h**l out of a busy shopper's way this year.

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Wal-Mart Deathly Stampede

If you thought any Black Friday experience you had was beyond ridiculous, just consider yourself lucky no one died (though many people find themselves dying on the inside.)

Alas, that is exactly what happened back in 2008 at a Long Island Wal-Mart. A few facts to convey this incident: over 2,000 people trampled into the store five minutes before scheduled to open. The store never in fact opened. The crowds opened it themselves, chanting push the doors in. And they did, knocking the doors off their hinges and literally basting it apart.

It was rumored that the employees all of sudden had to make a human chain to slow down the crowds that kept pouring. Not effective. Turned out the crowds ended up being a lethal Red Rover and they trampled a 34 year old temporary employee.

As other Wal-Mart employees tried to help the man, the crowds knocked them over as well all the while pummeling the downed man to death. When police and paramedics arrived, people kept pushing past them. When police forced the store to close, people kept pushing past them. Their excuse? I was in line since Friday morning! For 20 dollars off a PS3.

You can’t get more cold-hearted than that.

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Pregnant Woman Miscarried

Well, you can expect this type of violence if the crowds on Black Friday had been historically so bad they killed a man. This particular takedown occurred at the same place where the Wal-Mart worker was killed, making the 2008 shopping season a historical war zone in that area, which will remain unnamed in this article.

The eighth-month old pregnant woman was probably waiting to buy stuff for her soon to be newborn baby. Instead, she miscarried. The same group of people that knocked the doors off their hinges also managed to create the most brutal abortion imaginable.

Source and video that provide a full explanation.
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Old Woman Trampled

It seems like the saga of the madness trying to get into the store will never end. On Black Friday in 2005, all the people who waited in lines for hours at a Florida BrandSmart instinctively formed a mob mentality once the store opened and once again used the force of a hundred people to push themselves into the store. There was no mercy shown, especially towards senior citizens. One 73 year old woman was knocked down and back-stepped on again and again and there was nothing her poor daughter could do to help. One wonders if she was so slow when going in people tossed her aside like a rag doll.

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Do The Wave With Flat-Screen TV's

Typical Black Friday scene, which is ridiculous.

All these people are standing around with the carts and their overcoats. And then they all pounce onto a box and start tearing out flat-screen TV's. Check out the video to your left starting at 4:00. It's like being at a rock concert and giving the band the wave. Except this time, it's with flat-screen TV's and instead of a mosh pit, it's a bunch of people trying to move away while behind them, people keep tossing TV boxes above them over and over again.

And there's always some random guy filming it, as if he hopes he can get in on some action. The sad part is, he is filming it because he expects some kind of action to happen. That's how it goes if you want to a TV on Black Friday. Look at those Kevin James looking security guards too. Makes you feel safe, doesn't it?
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Paralyzed

A woman who was second in line to get into a Wal-Mart (note to self: never go to a Wal-Mart again) ended up getting trampled over in the rush to save 100 dollars on a laptop.

The woman herself puts it best, “I saved 100 dollars on that computer. I’ve probably spent 100,000 dollars on medical bills.” In the rush to get to that computer, the woman sustained a concussion, and back and neck pain.

Now, she walks with a cane, is hooked on prescriptions drugs and has memory problems. The husband called the chaos “America’s Running of the Bulls”, except instead of goring, the damage comes from being attacked whilst in a fetal position.

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Customers Shove For HP Pavillion Notebooks

Along with stampeding and trampling pregnant woman and elderly women, people always seem to go gaga over under-priced laptops. So much that they will shove in line to get them and push people to the floor. That is what happened in Lincoln, Nebraska back in 2005, where a Wal-Mart experienced a line surge in the area where it was selling laptops. So much so that it was reported that some people even tried to pry the laptops from shoppers' hands if they didn't get one. It was perhaps, the most epic game of tug and war ever witnessed.

The video to your left, though not at the event itself, displays an idea of said craziness.

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Guys Shoot Each Other

Black Friday. Toys R Us. Shooting deaths. Normally, people would never think of stringing those words up in the same sentence. Well, maybe the first two, but shooting deaths?

However, that’s exactly what happened the same day of the above Wal-Mart stampede. On the opposite side of the coast in Palm Desert, CA, two women got into a fight. No one knows why, but plenty of witnesses reported it was a bloody brawl. Bloody enough to incite their male companions to pull out their trusty hand-guns and shoot each other. God Bless America.

All h**l broke loose.The crowds ran out screaming from the store while the two shooters squared off and cocked their gun. One man failed so he ran through the aisles while the other guy shot at him. Eventually, they got to the cash register and exchanged multiple shots before dying.

Apparently, it wasn’t over a toy, though its very easy to make such an assumption. Two guys walk into a Toys R Us carrying guns then shoot each other. What’s to miss (other than, apparently, that one guy)?

But the worst part of it all: the mothers brought their children with them and their children witnessed their own fathers’ deaths.

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Distribution Frenzy

So retailers have a choice. Since sales start at 5AM (well, usually, this year they're starting as early as 4AM, or even 10PM the night before -- we're looking at YOU Toys R Us), they can either open the store and let all the crowds spill in at once (and kill people) or they can let customers in overnight and allow them to gather at their items of choice and have them wait until 5 AM when employees open the packages ( This video remains a good example of what that's like. Think piranhas).

At this Wal-Mart in Florida, people waiting to get GPS devices eventually got involved into a fight and somehow, GPS devices got thrown into the air. Needless to say, the employee had to start yelling at people to back up, but they probably got over-run anyway. Enough to to make the reporter commenting on the story want to get the h**l out of the store.
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Gift-Certificate Frenzy

It never snows in California, but when it does, people are bound to get injured. Black Friday 2006.

The Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance.

Mall management makes the place snow money when it drops 500 gift certificate filled balloons from the ceiling to the ground and 2,000 people rush to try and grab one. The numbers don’t convey the sheer size of that event. 2,000 people, all of them running towards one place. The commotion was incredible.

There was a 1 in 4 chance a customer could grab a balloon and the 9 in 10 chance they are going to get pushed over or knocked down in what was probably the most violent and turbulent sea of people ever witnessed. And since patterns never lie, an elderly woman was injured and sent to the hospital.

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Plain-clothes security guard

So among the many risks of Black Friday shopping, after the infamous stampede to enter the store and the fighting for the last of the half-priced XBoxes, there still are the lines and the lines and the lines and, not to mention, of course, the lines. Patience is a virtue, but it never was for this man who in 2005 cut in line at an Orlando Wal-Mart in hopes to get a bargain priced laptop.

A plain-clothes security guard caught him and pinned him to the ground before hand-cuffing him.

This wasn’t as ridiculous, though, as how those laptops were distributed. Customers formed a line where employees would hand them out, and instead customers found that the laptop were being thrown at them 20 feet into the air and it was up to them to grab their own. The scene plays out like a violent game of three flies up, with laptops. It’s a miracle none broke.

As for the guy, security called the sheriff on him. But the sheriff himself fought with the security guard, because he mistook him for other customers. Makes sense. Whoever heard of a plain-clothes security guard being successful anyway?

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Click here for video.
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Customers Kicked out of Wal-Mart

As a precaution to avoid the 2008 incident where someone died, a Wal-mart store in Upland, CA decided to remain open all night to avoid lines and door-rushing. Unfortunately for them, customers began tearing into the shrink-wrapped products that were meant to be open and distributed for sale at 5 AM.

When turned away by employees, they started fighting inside, forcing the Wal-Mart to call police to kick all the customers out and close to clean-up in time for the sale at 5 AM.

The people, naturally, were pissed off, and it seems at that moment, most of them turned into zombies, banging on the glass doors and even eating some brains (not really on that last one). Some got crafty and tried to sneak into the back entrance and the lawn and garden section.Through-out the entire night, there was chanting of "let me in, let me in" and cops had to remain until 6:15 AM.

This coming from one of the store managers trying to calm the crowd, "It was scary." Meaning that crowd could have teared him limb from limb.

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Fighting Over Vacuum Cleaners

Don’t poke fun at the fact that this is footage happening from the city of Mormons. But here, you see a good portrait of all the box-piling that happens the day after Thanksgiving, over and over and over again along with customers who’ve been awake “since the day before yesterday”, shopping “for the kids" and fighting over the vacuums. Well, isn’t Thanksgiving for the kids, too? Guess not.

And check out the video to your left for an epic wide-shot of all the people packed into a Wal-Mart. Sound included.
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Pregnant Woman Wig

Before jumping into this one, it's weird that this happens in the U.S. Usually when you hear about riots, stampedes or people being killed in crowds, it's important, or political. Here in the U.S., no matter how many civil liberties are denied certain groups, no matter how unhappy people are with their government, what it really takes to get people riled up is 40% off of a DVD set.

Shoppers show no mercy. Back in 2005 (again!) and in Grand Rapids, Michigan, according to the video, shoppers trampled and scuffled and pushed and knocked people down, including a pregnant woman, again.

As you can see, most people just push and jog and fast-walk right on by, and no tries to help her up. Later on, she is escorted to the hospital via ambulance.

But that’s not the worst part. In all the commotion, the security footage captures the most grievous injustice of all: the pregnant woman’s wig is knocked off (if you laughed, you're a terrible human being and are, apparently, proud of it). The devastating blow to the ego is clearly shown as she desperately tries to grab it back once it's lost. It’s frightening to think what would have happened if a patron had kicked it away.