A late-night shoe sale at a Granville Street store had to be called off when a member of the crowd gathered outside got violent.
Several people had gathered outside the Adidas store at 848 Granville St. for the release of a rare athletic shoe the store was putting on-sale for a Black Friday event.
A crowd formed as sneaker-heads waited for the store to open its doors, which were blocked with a metal grate. Several people heading to nightclubs and bars were also lining the busy street at the time.
But the sale was called off when the crowd turned violent, with several people fighting in the street.
One man, who was shirtless, started using his belt as a whip in an incident caught on cellphone camera and posted to social media. The video shows dozens of people on both sides of the street shouting and holding up their phones. A few men are around the shirtless man, ducking when he whips his belt.
"He was running around with his belt, swinging it at people, and then out of nowhere some guy came behind and just started choking him," a teen who witnessed the event said.
Another said his friend's brother went to the hospital as a result of the violence, and had to have a wound stapled shut.
The sale was cancelled and police were called in. Officers arrested the shirtless man, but police have provided no further details on the incident.
The shoes were raffled off on Saturday instead.
