Police: Man arrested after TV shopping melee

Police arrested a man after a shopping melee at a Northeast El Paso Wal-Mart, authorities said.

Ruben Garcia, 23, was among customers who were trying to grab a television just after 6 p.m. Thursday at the Wal-Mart at 5631 Dyer.

Police said in a news release that as employees were removing wraps that covered some television sets, a crowd began to grab at the televisions. Police said that during the incident one of the officers noticed that one woman, described by police as elderly, was at the bottom of a pile of customers.

Police said the woman was allegedly being stepped on by Garcia as he tried to grab the television she was holding. The woman, whose name was not released by police, cried for help. An off-duty officer who was employed to provide security tried to pull Garcia away from the woman, police said. Garcia refused to give up the television and got into an altercation with the officer, authorities said.

Police said Garcia allegedly hit the police officer multiple times in the chest and ignored his commands. Police also said that Garcia allegedly choked the officer. A second off-duty officer who was also employed to provide security during Black Friday sales at the Northeast Wal-Mart stepped in to help.

Garcia was arrested and accused of assault on a public servant. He was booked into the El Paso County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

Police did not release the name of the officer, but said he has been with El Paso police for three years. Police officials also did not comment on whether the Wal-Mart incident was the only one that led to arrests Thursday night.

Aaron Mullins, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the company was aware of the incident and knew about the arrest.

"From our perspective, I can tell you that customer safety is a top priority for us. This time of year, just like throughout the year, we have very store-specific kind of crowd management and safety plans in place. Those were followed and certainly worked in this situation," Mullins said.

Mullins said that despite videos on YouTube, there was only one incident at the Wal-Mart.

“It may be two videos of the same incident,” Mullins said.

Luis Carlos Lopez may be reached at 546-6381; llopez@elpasotimes.com; @lclopez4 on Twitter.