Retail giant Walmart is staying mostly mum over its decision to fire an employee who filmed a child freezing inside one of its Mississippi stores on Jan. 17.
The shocking video, which was captured by Felicia Darling, showed a mother pushing a cart with her barely dressed son inside the Byram Walmart, just south of Jackson. The child, wearing only a diaper, was seen visibly shaking and shivering as it was below 20 degrees outside.
As fellow shoppers reprimanded the woman we now know to be Kambria Darby, Darby fired back and said she was doing nothing wrong. At one point in the video, she threw a pack of frozen vegetables onto the already-cold child. Darby even started cussing and twerking in response to an older gentleman getting mad at her.
At about the one-minute mark in the video below, a female shopper began dressing the child with clothes from the store. Paramedics then had to be called to make sure the boy, later turned over to the custody of Child Protection Services, was okay.
While Darby’s actions are what initially sparked outrage, it was later revealed that Nicole had been fired for filming the incident. While Walmart officials declined to interview, they did send SuperTalk Mississippi News a prepared statement as to why Nicole was let go.
“We share the concern others have for the child in the video in our store in Jackson, Mississippi,” Walmart media relations spokesperson Kaylee Lemproe wrote, getting the store’s location wrong. “We don’t discuss personnel matters involving current or former associates. All associates are encouraged and empowered to use their judgment in contacting authorities when they see something that might be wrong, however, all associates are also expected to follow the Walmart Code of Conduct.”
According to the retail giant’s website, unauthorized filming of customers is prohibited inside stores – apparently even in a case where a child is being noticeably neglected. As or even more surprising than Darling’s firing was how the mother responded to the situation after she bonded out of jail.
Darby didn’t wait long to go to Facebook and weigh in on her side of the story, comparing herself to Jesus Christ.
“They did Jesus the same way, he felt sick to his stomach as well; he didn’t want to go through it,” Darby wrote. “My village ain’t gone play about my 3 (children) & neither do I! Again, I can’t say everything it’s a legal matter, but my kids are not a charity case, they are not neglected, and I am not mentally ill! Stop it with the defamation!”
The latest revelation in the story is that the child has fully recovered and has been released by CPS to an approved relative. In the meantime, sympathizers of Darling’s have created a GoFundMe page for the fired employee, and the court process will begin for Darby, who could face up to six years in prison.
