BOSTON -- Connecticut authorities said two armed men tried to rob a line of people waiting to buy the new Sony PlayStation 3 in Putnam, Conn., early Friday, shooting a 21-year-old Massachusetts man.

Michael Penkala, of Webster, Mass., was taken to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester with wounds to the shoulder and chest area. He was listed in serious but stable condition after undergoing surgery on Friday.

"He and his grandmother had put money in to buy this game. They were going to put it on eBay and sell it, and make some money for Gram," said Penkala's mother, Helen. "A couple of guys with masks, I guess, came up to the line, demanded money, and most of them handed it over and my son refused."

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Meanwhile in Boston, NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that about 500 people waited outside the Copley Place Mall and near-riot conditions erupted when mall security opened one of doors and scores of people tried to get in.

Andy Cash was there and recorded the scene with his cell phone camera.

"Look at the scene, you'll see, like people are pressed up against a cage. It was like the soccer games you hear about in Latin America where people get trampled," he said.

"People ran up the escalators. There was too much weight and the escalator went down and people got hurt," one girl said.

"People got trampled. I went to the floor. There were women and children here. They had to call the police," Michael Bernard said.

"We had to move the crowd back. We remove the 500 people from Copley Plaza. (We) brought them out to the sidewalk," Boston police Sgt. John Doris said.

Some customers said the situation got ugly.

"They took this club, and they said, 'Who's the joke now? Either get out of here or you're getting this across the skull,'" customer Jeff Grant said.

Mall security officers would not allow TV cameras inside the mall, and people waiting outside were given tickets for the 16 game systems that the store had to sell.

"I got No. 19, and they won't even let me in," Steven Duong said.

Kevin Swecker was one of the people who got a game system. He said the trouble he went through to get it would pay off in the end.

"It's going on eBay. We're going to make a couple grand," he said.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino was outraged about the situation.

"It's almost like scalping. It really is. It's wrong to take advantage of the public the way they are. It's wrong by the manufacturer and by the retailer," Menino said.

The mayor said he was going to send a letter to Simon Malls and to Sony demanding that they pick up the expense for all the police officers who had to respond to the emergency.

At a Best Buy store in the Fenway and a Wal-Mart in Wrentham, people who had wait for days in line were disappointed because the stores had promised midnight sales but failed to get the proper permits to remain open. The stores gave them rain checks and told them to return first thing Friday morning.