Just before lunchtime on the day after Thanksgiving in a crowded Palm Desert toy store, an argument between two women escalated into a violent and terrifying scene when their male associates pulled out guns and fired at each other.

Shoppers scurried. Gunshots rang out. And as the gunmen lay on the store's floor in the aftermath of the bloody shootout, a bystander leaned over one of the suspects who was near death and took away his handgun.

As investigators released new details Wednesday of the violent altercation that catapulted the Coachella Valley into national headlines, one theme emerged: It could have been far worse.

“The only thing I'm thankful for is no innocents got hurt,” Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Dean Spivacke, a supervisor with the department's homicide unit, said Wednesday. “I'm surprised nobody got hit.”

Authorities say Juan Carlos Meza, 28, of Cathedral City, and Alejandro Hernandez Moreno, 39, of Desert Hot Springs, fatally shot each other Nov. 28 during the first day of the holiday shopping season inside the Toys R Us store at 72-314 Highway 111.

Their initial confrontation took place in the electronics section near the front of the store and ended with a shootout in the checkout lines, Spivacke said.

Officials say the two men knew each other and were involved in some kind of long-standing personal dispute.

Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco has said that Meza had tattoos on his body that indicated he had at some point been involved in a Coachella Valley gang, but sheriff's officials say gangs were not a factor in this incident.

“Investigators have found no indication this was gang-related,” said sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez Wednesday.

“It appears they were two individuals who had a prior confrontation and they just happened to meet under the same roof.”

Mark Sullivan, a Palm Springs lawyer and Moreno family friend, said Wednesday that Moreno was not in a gang.

He added that while he didn't know specifics of the dispute between Moreno and Meza, he believed that at one time the two were friends who, several years ago, had some kind of falling out.

Spivacke said the shooting started about 11:15 a.m. inside the crowded store.

Authorities believe Moreno died instantly. Meza, who fell to the ground with a firearm in his hands, lived for a few minutes before dying.

A person Spivacke called a “good Samaritan” removed the weapon from Meza's hand.

Upon arrival, deputies recovered the two handguns, which were described as different calibers. But authorities declined to discuss the guns further.

Autopsies were conducted on Moreno and Meza on Monday and toxicology reports are pending.

Officials have not released official causes of death.