At Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch: 'Mom, I was just pepper-sprayed'

Shoppers who had come to the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch on Thursday night for the much-advertised Black Friday sale got more than they bargained for when a woman used pepper spray to gain an advantage.

Anna Recalde said her teenage children were hit with the spray. At one point, she said, she smelled her 16-year-old son and asked him, "What is that?"

"Mom," he replied, "I was just pepper-sprayed."

Recalde’s 13-year-old daughter, Samantha, said she saw a woman wearing a black hoodie make a sweeping motion of her hand with a bottle of pepper spray, sending it into the air near customers.

"She said, 'Back!'" Samantha said. "I was just trying to close my eyes."

The girl said she was punched in the face by another customer as she tried to grab a crock pot for her grandmother, leaving her with a swollen cheek.

Her mother said store employees were trying to keep the sale organized but that shoppers became too aggressive.

"There was fighting inside," said Anna Recalde, who had not shopped on Black Friday before. "This is my first time and the last time."

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-- Andrew Blankstein