Man claims he was stabbed by employee at homeless shelter
In a game of pool, you take shots.
“I used to play every day, it’s been ten years since I played,” Jason Cannon said, as he was playing pool on a Monday afternoon. “It could be better.”
Some are easy, others are hard.
“All have been pretty tough shots,” Cannon said as he continues to play.
Several years ago, Jason Cannon found himself behind the eight ball.
“I didn't have any place to go,” he said.
Cannon was homeless.
“Drugs played a major part in that. Just not really caring about what happened to me at the time. And just my priorities were all messed up,” Cannon said.
Five and a half years is how long Cannon says he spent on the streets of Albuquerque.
“For about the first three years, I was outside, and I had a vehicle I was staying in. And then when I didn't have the vehicle anymore, I was on the streets hardcore. For the last two and a half years I stayed at the shelter,” Cannon said.
That shelter is the city's west side emergency housing center.
“I saw a lot of fights, a lot of stealing, a lot of drug overdoses, especially heroin and fentanyl. I saw at least six people die due to that. It's just a rough place to try and be yourself,” Cannon said.
But according to Cannon, there were also problems with those working at the center.
“A lot of the staff members there would like to belittle, treat you like, you know, you didn't matter,” Cannon said.
Cannon said the treatment by staff reached a new level on June 20, 2021, when he claims a security guard threatened him with a knife. Which eventually led to an altercation.
“He ended up stabbing me three times in the back and once in the back of the leg,” Cannon said.
Following the stabbing Cannon said those working at the center wouldn't call an ambulance or the police.
“I had to call the ambulance and the police myself. And it took about 45 minutes for them to show up, long enough for me to almost pass out from loss of blood,” Cannon said.
Once at the hospital Cannon was taken into emergency surgery.
“Nobody in their wildest dreams thinks, 'Hey, I'm going to wake up today and someone is going to stab me.' Let alone somebody who is, you know, employed to protect us,” Cannon said.
Everything Cannon told Target 7 is laid out in a civil lawsuit filed against the City of Albuquerque, Heading Home, and the security guard who is accused of the stabbing.
Attorney Frank Davis filed the suit.
“My initial thoughts were complete shock. This is not something you would expect to happen at a government building, let alone a homeless shelter. My goodness,” Davis said.
But what happened following the incident is also shocking to Davis.
“Unfortunately, I don't think this was given the attention it deserved because you are dealing with a homeless individual who is at risk and who doesn't matter to a lot of other people,” Davis said.
Following the incident Cannon said he filed a police report
“The police never contacted me again after I filed the police report,” Cannon said.
A court record search showed the security guard was never charged with a stabbing and didn't have a prior record. As far as his employment the city tells us he was contracted with Heading Home and no longer works for them.
“I think they thought they could push this away or they thought it would be swept under the rug, because they thought Mr. Cannon was a vagrant, they thought they could do that. But Mr. Cannon is ready to pursue these claims,” said Davis.
Cannon has learned much; life, like pool, is going to throw you some tough shots.
“It reunited me with my family,” Cannon said
But if you take the right angles everything will fall into place.
“Me getting injured like that took me off the streets, so I can thank God for that,” Cannon said.
We reached out to Heading Home, the organization that employed the security guard they never got back to us.
According to a police report obtained by Target 7, the guard claimed Cannon attacked him. Officers said they were going to charge Cannon with battery, but that hasn't happened