Talk about a stressful shopping experience.
Shocking cellphone video shows a group of women fighting inside a Michigan Walmart when one of the women reaches into her purse and pulls out a handgun, sending customers and employees scurrying.
The reason for the mid-aisle brawl?
“It was in the back-to-school section over a notebook,” Novi Police Det. Scott Baetens told WJBK News in Michigan.
The incident occurred on Aug. 28 at around 2:20 p.m. at a Walmart in Novi, Mich. Police say two women from nearby Farmington Hills, age 32 and 46, were doing some back-to-school shopping when they got into a confrontation with a 20-year-old woman and her 51-year-old mother.
“One girl was going to buy a notebook. There was one left. Some pushing resulted,” Det. Baetens said. “They began to argue who was the rightful purchaser of that notebook.”
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The confrontation escalated into what the police called “physical violence” between the two pairs of women over the apparent notebook scarcity. In the video, we can see the 20-year-old woman on her knees as the two other women seem to be pulling her hair.
That’s when the 51-year-old reached into her purse and pulled out the pistol, which police say was loaded.
However, police also said the woman was legally allowed to be carrying the firearm, which was registered in her name.
“She’s a valid CPL (Concealed Pistol License) holder,” Baetens said. “She pulled out her firearm and tells them to stop attacking her daughter while pointing the gun at them.”
Thankfully, the firearm was not discharged and the confrontation was broken up shortly thereafter. Nobody was injured in the brawl, and police did not place anyone under arrest at the time.
However, Baetens says prosecutors are still considering charges against all four women.
“It was a senseless act of violence all the way around,” said Baetens.