A Mississippi Walmart employee claimed that she was terminated from her job after recording a video of a customer with an underdressed child amid frigid temperatures.
A woman named Felicia said her manager fired her on Saturday, Jan. 20, for posting the video on her Facebook page. She claims that a woman was in the store a few days prior with a child who only had on a diaper.
“The child had on no clothes, no socks, nor shoes, and I took it upon myself to record it for the [child’s] sake,” Felicia wrote on her GoFundMe campaign. “No, I wasn’t thinking about the consequences at the time…my main focus was on that innocent poor child and to get him some help. I wanted to reach out to some of her family members and case workers.”
According to her Facebook page, she was fired from a Walmart Supercenter in Byram, about 11 miles from Jackson. Atlanta Black Star reached out to the retail giant multiple times for comment.
The weather forecast shows the temperature in the city dropped to about 25 degrees on Jan. 17 — the day Felicia said she recorded the woman. She stated she initially removed the video at her manager’s request but lost her job anyway. Felicia did not respond to Atlanta Black Star’s request for comment.
Her videos have been widely circulated on several social media platforms, including X, previously known as Twitter and TikTok. In an updated post, Felicia said that she called the police on the woman, and she went to jail.
In one video, the child is captured sitting in a shopping cart with an oversized Black jacket on his shoulders while a woman places groceries next to him.
“He came in here without that jacket on,” Felicia said. “That baby just had a pamper on.”
The woman started to argue with Felicia and other bystanders inside the store. She told one man to “lower your voice.”
“Somebody call the police on her,” Felicia continued. “That’s just sad.”
Another angle shows the child sitting in a cart without a shirt on. Another shopper appears to put a gray hoodie on him before the video stops. It’s unclear if she knew the woman or the child.
Felicia’s GoFundMe has raised nearly $17,000 as of Thursday afternoon. She said the donations would be used to pay her bills.
“My manager fired me 2 hours before I got off,” she wrote. “Now I’m jobless [because] I was only trying to help and save that [baby’s] life.”
