A police officer injured breaking up a fight between shoppers in California; a man shot in Las Vegas after buying a big screen television; a shooting between police and a shoplifter near Chicago; and a baby apparently abandoned in car while both parents went shopping were among the incidents that marred Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping in some areas.

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In Rialto, Calif., authorities said a police officer suffered a broken wrist as he broke up a brawl between two men waiting in line for Black Friday shopping deals at a Southern California Walmart store.

The San Bernardino Sun said the fight occurred about 7 p.m. Thanksgiving night when store managers decided to open the doors early to accommodate more than 3,000 waiting people. The doors were originally scheduled to open at 8 p.m.

Police say there were three fights total at the store, two of which were inside over merchandise and the third outside that injured the officer.

One of the men involved in the fight outside was arrested for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Police say he was allegedly kicking the other man in the head when he was down on the ground.

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A police officer answering a call of alleged shoplifting at a Chicago area department store shot the driver of a car that was dragging a fellow officer.

The wounded driver of the car and the dragged officer were both taken for hospital treatment of non-life-threatening shoulder injuries, police said. Three people were arrested.

Mark Turvey, police chief in Romeoville, Ill., said police got a call shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday of two people allegedly shoplifting clothes from a Kohl’s store in the southwest Chicago suburb.

“As officers approached the front door, one of the two subjects ran out the door into the parking lot” and the officer chased him to a waiting car, Turvey said.

“The officer was struggling with the subject as he got into the car and then the car started to move as the officer was partially inside the car. The officer was dragged quite some distance. He couldn’t get out,” Turvey said.

The police chief said a backup officer fired two or three shots toward the driver when he refused orders to stop, striking him once in the shoulder.

There were no reports of any injuries to shoppers hunting for deals ahead of Black Friday.

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A dispute in a Virginia parking lot crowded with holiday shoppers turned violent Thanksgiving night, with one throwing a punch and another responding by cutting him with a knife and brandishing a rifle, the sheriff’s office said today.

Both men were charged Thursday after the altercation in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Tazewell County that sent panicked shoppers scattering.

Christopher Jackson, 35, was waiting for another shopper to leave a parking space when Ronnie Sharp, 61, began sounding his horn behind Jackson’s vehicle, the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office said.

Sheriff Brian Hieatt said Jackson got out of his vehicle and confronted Sharp, punching him, and Sharp responded by severely cutting Jackson on the arm with a knife and pulling out a rifle. The rifle was not loaded.

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Las Vegas police said a shopper carrying a big-screen TV home from a Target on Thanksgiving was shot by a thief.

Authorities say the incident happened at about 9:45 p.m. Thursday.

Police Lt. David Gordon says the victim was carrying the TV at an apartment complex near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas when someone fired warning shots, prompting him to drop the appliance. Gordon says the robber snatched the TV and took it to a vehicle, and the victim tried to wrestle it back. That’s when the robber fired shots and hit the victim in the leg.

The shopper was taken to Sunrise Hospital with injuries that aren’t considered life-threatening. No arrests have been made. It’s unclear what happened to the TV.

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Police in Utah said at least two people were knocked to the ground by a crowd of Wal-Mart shoppers jockeying for a $49 tablet computer. Police say store employees brought out a pallet of items wrapped in cellophane, and about 200 people rushed forward to grab the items as the workers cut the wrapper.

Police say neither person was seriously hurt in the incident Thursday night at a store in Clinton, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City.

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In Florida, a father faces felony child neglect charges after a Florida Highway Patrol trooper spotted a baby left alone in a car outside a Best Buy store.

The incident happened about 5:30 p.m. Thursday near Orlando.

Authorities said trooper Edy Rivera saw the infant in a car seat inside a locked car. He went into the store, looking for the vehicle’s owner. When no one came forward, he broke the vehicle’s window and got the baby boy out.

A short time later, officials say 34-year-old Haider Darwash returned to the vehicle. He told troopers he thought his wife had the baby. She was located standing in line at another business in the shopping center.

The child was not harmed.

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Not all the incidents happened in the U.S.

At least one person was injured in Northern Ireland as shoppers rushed to get deals for Black Friday, a day of sales modeled on the American kick-off to the holiday shopping season.

British supermarket chain Asda — owned by U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart — has been advertising its Black Friday deals throughout the U.K.

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said it was called to Westwood Center in Belfast and took a woman with an arm injury to the hospital.

Asda’s Westwood store had two dozen 32-inch TVs on sale at reduced prices, according to Britain’s Press Association.

Asda said in a statement that the safety of its customers is of “vital importance” and that it has extra security in stores.ed a broken wrist as he broke up a brawl between two men waiting in line for Black Friday shopping deals at a Southern California Walmart store.