A Louisiana woman who posted a video of herself dousing a homeless person with ice water amid freezing temperatures has been fired from her job and is facing criminal charges.
The Baton Rouge Police Department has issued a misdemeanor summons for simple battery for Kasey Young, 44, after a video she posted on Facebook showed her pouring water on the Black person sitting near a convenience store where she worked on Monday, Dec. 26.
Many in the community have condemned the former store clerk’s actions. The owner of the Triple S Food Mart in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said he immediately fired Young.
“When I got the news, I didn’t speak to the employee too much,” said Abdul Muflahi in a press conference Tuesday. “All I told her was to leave the property because we do not handle situations like that.”
The viral video shows Young exiting the Triple S Food Mart with a mid-size bucket of water in her hand before walking it near the woman sitting on the sidewalk and throwing it on her.
“Move! Not telling y’all again. Move it! Clean this s–t the f— up,” the clerk yells.
Another woman who appears to have items on the sidewalks starts to gather up things.
“I’m doing it now,” a voice replies.
“I’m sick of this s–t. Y’all got my whole f—ing floor looking like a….”
A man who seems to be holding the cellphone recording the ordeal tells another homeless person to “get out of the parking lot” before he and Young return inside the store.
Reports show temperatures dropped as low as 25 degrees that night. Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome said the homeless person has been placed in a shelter.
“This incident emphasizes the continued need for our outreach efforts. In this case, several community partners worked together to locate the individual, bring them to the Bridge Center and connect them with additional services,” Weston Broome said.
Another employee who worked at the store said Young is known for feeding the homeless in the community, and he believes she may have been fed up that they wouldn’t leave the property that day.
The man recording the video also pointed out the store was the site of the 2017 police killing of Alton Sterling, a Black man who was shot after Baton Rouge officers responded to a call about a man illegally selling CDs and threatening someone with a gun.
Muflahi said they had been homeless people loitering outside the store for some time, affecting business. He admitted that Young had called the police “a couple of times” before the water attack.
“For someone to get ice cold water thrown on them in these below-freezing temperatures is just disrespectful,” said Laramie Griffin, founder of Evolve Louisiana, at Tuesday’s press conference. “It also could’ve hurt this person physically.”
On Christmas Day, Charles Wilson Ligon Jr., 57, also homeless, was found dead by duck hunters in the Baton Rouge area, reportedly dying from exposure to the cold weather while trying to travel to Tennessee to connect with family.
