Walmart Pepper-Sprayer: Lawyer Claims She Was Defending Her Kids

LOS ANGELES -- An attorney for a woman who pepper-sprayed fellow shoppers at a Los Angeles Walmart on Black Friday says she did it to protect her teenage children.

Attorney Michael Champ said Friday the son and daughter of 32-year-old Elizabeth Macias were "traumatized" when other shoppers attacked them as they tried to buy Xbox game consoles. The family left empty-handed.

Detectives previously told the Los Angeles Times Macias may have acted in self-defense.

County prosecutors said Thursday they would not file felony charges against Macias in the chaotic incident that brought national attention, with some 20 people suffering nose and throat irritation. She could still face misdemeanor charges.

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Comments

[GraceNotes]

04:47 PM on 12/12/2011

For a woman who has not been charged with anything, she certainly "lawyered up" very quickly.

[carnivaluv]

03:04 PM on 12/14/2011

Wouldn't you? Dang!

[GraceNotes]

03:54 PM on 12/14/2011

I wouldn't pepper spray other people in line at Wal-Mart.

[dimplasm]

04:06 PM on 12/12/2011

WalMart and all the others need to start 12 days out and have a 12 days of Christmas promotion. Then they could have a special or 2 per day, and not have everybody there all at once.

[joncavanaugh]

12:01 PM on 12/12/2011

Pepper spraying people at Wal-Mart-a new holiday tradition?

[smokeedaclown]

10:21 AM on 12/12/2011

She's lucky I was not there, she would be tryin to pass that pepper spray through her colon

[carnivaluv]

03:06 PM on 12/14/2011

Your lucky that didn't happen because after it came out of her, I'd put it in you.

[smokeedaclown]

09:57 AM on 12/17/2011

ha ha

[smokeedaclown]

09:59 AM on 12/17/2011

nah, you would end up with lead poisining, and leak

[IsabelRingin]

08:30 AM on 12/12/2011

I have never shopped on Black Friday and I never will. And I don't believe for a second she was protecting her kids. Giving her kids an unfair advantage, maybe, but not protecting them.

[carnivaluv]

03:09 PM on 12/14/2011

She didn't want to get trampled on, or her kids, dang. I bet she doesn't go again.

[butchcliff]

06:24 AM on 12/12/2011

Still a weapon. Good thing she didn't bring her luger with her

[tector]

01:41 AM on 12/12/2011

if she gets off on this charge, walmart and all the other stores can make lemonade from this lemon.

all they have to do is set up booths out in the parking lot selling mace and pepper spray to prospective customers and let the good times roll. ho, ho, ho, merry fraud!

[teacher2be33]

01:02 AM on 12/12/2011

Just shows what Christmas has become.......it has become a commercialized holiday only to make money for companies by mesmerizing peoples minds that they need certain possessions in order to have the perfect holiday. Whatever happened to spending the day with simple gifts but being with each other and celebrating the real meaning of Christmas? After all the kids get all these "special gifts" and play with them all for a few months at most until the next new thing comes out and then the hunt is on again..........it is awful. Reminds me of the Cabbage Patch Dolls when they came out and that Teddy Ruxpin thing......when a few weeks after the rush you could get them so easily.....! Why kill yourself to try and get it for a cheap price, risk getting hurt or injured and a lot of times not getting what you set out to get anyway because there are never enough for everyone. Geez.......alas the word CHRISTmas.....we need to remember the name of the holiday and the meaning of it.

[TaxpayingVoter]

09:38 PM on 12/13/2011

Seriously. We need to get back to celebrating Saturnalia like they did before Christ.

[Choyce2020]

09:54 PM on 12/11/2011

Why didn't Wal-Mart allow only a certain amount of people in the store at one time to try to avoid this type of a disaster?

Are we Americans so caught up in getting a "real bargain" that we will hurt & maim others just to buy an Xbox? If so, sadly some of us have turned into “very aggressive pond scum.” First thought was to use the word “animal” but I didn’t want to insult the species.

I Hope this woman is found guilty of some crime & will be forced to do jail time; she deserves nothing less. Isn't this a great example she set for her children?

[bldr1bob]

08:22 PM on 12/11/2011

Total bs...next she'll be saying the yelled recial epithets and spit on her............

[Annie12]

07:52 PM on 12/11/2011

Why doesn't she give her kids a jump rope and ball and send them outside to play?

[O K Ali]

02:38 PM on 12/11/2011

"Many Christmas' ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had. So did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized, there had to be another way. The doll was destroyed, but out of that a new holiday was born. A Festivus for the rest of us!"

[smokeedaclown]

09:49 AM on 12/12/2011

lmao!

[django707]

02:27 PM on 12/11/2011

So, we are invited to take part in the savage ritual of consumerism known as Black Friday and some of us feel uncomfortable. Get outta the way, bitches! We're Americans and we gonna shop!
Spray away! Heck bring knives, guns, batons, brass knuckles.
This is take-the-gloves-off consumerism!
Somebody bring a film crew!
This show needs to be on the air right now!
I need to kick back in my recliner and feel superior to my fellow consumers!
Feed the beast!

[smokeedaclown]

09:50 AM on 12/12/2011

HA HA so true!

[hotbarb2614]

01:28 PM on 12/11/2011

Give it a break lady,you were trying to get an xbox and you took them with you? she should claim insanity.

[pinky1232]

11:49 AM on 12/11/2011

The only advice I could give her is to try and file bankruptcy now. When the lawsuits start rolling in, the price of a stupid xbox won't compare to the amount of money the injured parties will sue her for.

[carnivaluv]

03:12 PM on 12/14/2011

Why sue? Americans are so rude.