Following the Bourbon Street attack in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025, claims circulated online that Amazon denied leave to an injured employee.
The claims stemmed from a report on nola.com on Jan. 2, which detailed how Alexis Scott-Windham of Mobile, Alabama, was hit by a truck and shot in the foot when Shamsud-Din Jabbar plowed a pickup down the busy street, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens more. Following the attack, Scott-Windham requested leave from Amazon, her employer, but was denied, according to the article.
Examples (archived) of the claim (archived) on X and Facebook (archived) persisted for days (archived).
Y'all hear about how an Amazon warehouse has denied a leave of absence to one of its employees, who just so happened to be injured in New Orleans in the events that happened New Years Day?
Absolutely insane.
The person was pew pew'd, and Amazon said DEFINITELY NO to a leave of absence.
Just made the last order from the company that I'll ever make. Straight from the manufacturer from now on.
And if you weren't aware, Walmart is just as bad, for different reasons. Rethinking all of my retail shopping choices now.
However, while Amazon did initially deny Scott-Windham leave, the company later said this was an administrative error and reversed the decision, offering (archived) its "full support," according to a company spokeswoman.
We have reached out to Amazon and Scott-Windham to independently confirm the details reported by media outlets including nola.com, Fox Business and NBC News, and will update the report should we hear back.
The original nola.com report was published on Jan. 2. The following day, an X account with the name Kelly Nantel and the bio "Director of Corporate Global Media Relations for @Amazon" replied to a posting of the article with the following statement:
I wanted to make sure you knew that we've reached out to Ms. Scott-Windham to make sure she knows she has our full support, including pay, as she recovers. We look forward to welcoming her back once she's able.
We believe this verified account belongs to a genuine Amazon representative due to professional posts in both 2024 (archived) and 2022 (archived). Elements of the statement above also appeared attributed to Kelly Nantel in media reports on the story.
Snopes has previously checked claims that Amazon's Alexa speaker gave reasons to vote for Kamala Harris but not Donald Trump and whether Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was building a 10,000-year clock.