GARFIELD — A 23-year-old Passaic man was doused with pepper spray and arrested after he got into an argument with a Wal-Mart manager while shoppers began to flood area stores on Thanksgiving night, police said.

Richard Ramos allegedly became "belligerent" while arguing with a Wal-Mart shopper over a television around 6:30 p.m., and proceeded to attack a Garfield Police officer when the manager called for help, according to Lt. Martin Gray.

Officers used pepper spray to subdue Ramos before arresting him, Gray said. The 23-year-old was charged with aggravated assault of a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, according to Gray, who said Ramos remains at the Bergen County Correctional Facility in Hackensack in lieu of $20,000.

Garfield Police and firefighters were already in the area to provide round the clock security for Wal-Mart and other stores in the area, as thousands of shoppers are expected to flock to local businesses for "Black Friday" deals tonight and through the weekend, Gray said.

It was not immediately clear what exactly Ramos and the manager were arguing about, and Gray declined to speculate. Gray said "thousands" of shoppers were in the store and the surrounding area at the time of the incident.

No other customers or employees were involved in the incident, and no one else was hurt, Gray said.

Attempts to contact the Garfield store were unsuccessful. Kayla Whaling, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said the chain has crowd management plans in place for all 4,000 of its stores nationwide but declined to comment on the Garfield incident.

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