Video captures Westside Emergency Shelter worker yelling, cursing

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A woman says she left Albuquerque’s Westside Emergency Shelter feeling fearful and concerned about the shelter operation. 

She caught a worker on camera yelling and swearing at a man outside the shelter, less than a minute after she says the same worker acted aggressively toward her, and the two elderly women she was dropping off.

This woman says she spotted the two women in the Smith’s parking lot near Central and Tramway Thursday morning. One of them had a walker and both had a lot of bags, so she offered them a ride, and they chose to go to the Westside Shelter.

She says when she pulled up, the same shelter worker started yelling at her, telling her she parked in the wrong spot. She says she was able to quickly help the women inside with their bags, and when she came out, the worker was fighting with another man.

“You can boil it down to an individual having a bad day at work, but for the type of profession she’s in again, there should be some more training on how to address these types of situations,” she said. “I’m concerned about the people that are residing there you know, cause if it could happen to an individual, someone like me that’s helping another individual at that facility, who knows how she could be treating them.”

The COO of Heading Home – the nonprofit that runs the shelter – says they’re aware of the incident, and they’re conducting an investigation to find out exactly what happened.