Black Friday brawl at upscale mall

ROSEVILLE, Calif. (CNN/KOVR) - Black Friday brought a fight to an upscale shopping mall northeast of Sacramento, Calif., where a nearby shopper caught the brawl on his iPhone.

The sea of chaos was the last thing Lawrence Corpus thought he'd see while Black Friday shopping with his family at the Roseville Galleria.

"It could have easily become a riot, I think,” he said.

But when fists started flying, Corpus pulled out his iPhone and began recording.

"I know a guy took the top of a trash can and actually threw it at him,” said Chase, a witness.

That's what witnesses said happened right before the violent beatdown. The lid almost hit some shoppers.

"It was like a flying saucer -- just flew by,” Corpus said.

The next thing they knew, two women started getting into it. And then it turned into an all-out brawl: two men verses one.

Shoppers nearby started to scatter.

"Two guys started punching each other,” said Chase. “Then, they ran over the barrier -- the jump thing -- and the guy started getting his face stomped in. It was pretty crazy."

Meanwhile, Corpus’ video of the fight has already been viewed well more than 15,000 times on YouTube.

"You could feel the intensity of the fight as it happened, so it was something I felt like I had to document,” he said.

Corpus said that intensity lasted at least 15 minutes before security stepped in, possibly just before someone else could have gotten hurt.

"Could happen anywhere, but I definitely think that security should have been beefed up a little bit more during a busy time like that,” he said.