Store employee fired after viral video shows her dumping water on homeless woman in freezing weather

Geoff Herbert

syracuse.com

An employee at a Louisiana convenience store has lost their job after dumping water on a homeless woman in freezing weather.

WAFB reports a video that went viral and sparked outrage online shows a female worker at the Triple S Food Mart in Baton Rouge confronting a woman outside the store over the Christmas holiday weekend when temperatures dropped in a nationwide cold blast. The employee poured a bucket of water on the woman in 26-degree weather, according to the Daily Mail, and told her to leave.

“Move! Not telling y’all again. Move it!” the worker could be heard saying in the video. “I’m sick of this s—.”

According to the Daily Mail, the video was posted by the worker in question, identified as 44-year-old Kasey Young, and recorded by a male co-worker, whose voice is also heard in the clip.

The store’s owner, Abdul Muflahi, said Tuesday that Young was fired “because we do not handle situations like that.” It’s unclear if the male who recorded the video faced any repercussions.

An employee at the store — coincidentally the same location where Alton Sterling was shot and killed by police in 2016, sparking Black Lives Matter protests — told WAFB that Young was known for feeding the homeless in the area, but thinks she got upset when several homeless people refused to leave the property.

The city’s Behavioral Health Homeless Outreach Team addressed the store and gave the homeless woman assistance, Mayor Sharon Weston Broome said.

“This incident emphasizes the continued need for our outreach efforts,” Broome said in a statement. “In this case, several community partners worked together to locate the individual, bring them to the Bridge Center and connect them with additional services.”