Black Friday Pepper Spray: Shopper Who Doused Customers May Have Acted In Self-defense

A California shopper who unleashed a blast of pepper spray on at least 14 Walmart customers on Thanksgiving night was not charged with a crime. Police say she may have been acting in self-defense.

Los Angeles Police Department detectives in the San Fernando Valley reviewed a YouTube video and store surveillance footage, and interviewed witnesses before deciding to let the unnamed 32-year-old woman off the hook, according to The Los Angeles Daily News.

The original theory was the woman sprayed others in a crazed dash to get a discounted Microsoft Xbox at the start of the Christmas shopping season, but the footage convinced police that she possibly feared for her life amid a quasi-stampede.

The wanted woman turned herself in to authorities on Saturday as the story spread across the country, because violence during Christmas shopping has become a quasi-annual tradition and symptom ofmad consumer greed.

Although she surrendered to police, the woman wasn't fully cooperative, the LAPD's Devonshire division said. After telling cops her name, she wouldn't answer any questions, according to KCAL.