Walmart says its stores are safe and that a series of violent events at several of its stores were isolated "unfortunate incidents."
Violence was reported at Black Friday sales across the U.S. — many of them at Walmarts, including:
• The shooting of a shopper outside a California, which left the man in critical condition.
• The pepper-spraying by police of shoppers at a North Carolina store.
The arrests of 10 Occupy protesters at an Oklahoma store
• The shooting of a shopper at a South Carolina store.
• A fight at a New York store.
• The discovery of a "suspicious device" that led to the evacuation of an Arizona store.
Greg Rossiter, a spokesman for Walmart, told NBC News:
Overall it's been a very safe event at the thousands of Walmart stores open for Black Friday. There were a few unfortunate incidents, but otherwise we've heard positive feedback from our customers and associates.
When asked whether Walmart was looking into how any of the incidents were handled, Rossiter told NBC News that as part of any retail event like this, retailers will always be looking to do things better.
