Social media is at it again: Calls to arrest a woman who chose violence are trending after a video of a woman assaulting a U.S. Navy sailor went viral. Police officials looked to social media to identify the woman and are in contact with the suspect after receiving multiple tips, the Berlin Police Department in Connecticut said. The woman was captured both verbally and physically assaulting the sailor, identified as Sean Nolte Jr., as he waited for some pizza on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
The incident began after the woman stormed into Central Pizza and accused Nolte Jr. of being a fake soldier. She not only cursed at Nolte Jr., who stood his ground, but threw his cap on the floor and slapped his face. “She storms out of the pizzeria, and storms right back in, progressively screaming at me ‘You disgust me, you son of a b----,’ grabbing my uniform and throwing my cover on the ground, not aware that I am a real service member,” Nolte Jr. wrote in a Facebook post.
Alongside his recollection of the incident, Nolte Jr. shared a video. He noted that the woman got violent after staring at him for several minutes.
According to his Facebook page, he is a submarine electronics fire control technician. The Navy confirmed that he is a sailor assigned to training at the Naval Submarine School in Groton.
Despite showing his ID to the woman, the woman discredited him and claimed his ID was fake, yelling: “This is what your ID should look like,” in the process of showing him a dependent military ID.
That’s when things got physical. “This is disgusting,” the woman said to Nolte Jr. in the TikTok video. “You disgrace the USA,” she said while yelling other profanities.
Despite the harassment he faced, Nolte Jr. stood calm. “Being in uniform, I must maintain professionalism, so I stand there and proceed to wish her a nice day,” Nolte Jr. said on Facebook.
In the video, the restaurant employees can be heard telling her to leave, yet she doesn’t seem to care
“Ma’am, you’re on camera — I would leave now before I call the police,” the off-camera worker warns. The woman then comes closer and the employee can be heard saying: “Ma’am, you’re not allowed to grab my phone, you’re not permitted to grab his hat.”
Prior to Wednesday, officials were struggling to identify the woman who committed the assault, but social media and sharing her photo not only brought more attention to the incident but led them to the "probable identity of the suspect." Her identity has not yet been publicly disclosed.
Social media users were not only appalled at the woman’s actions but the fact that she harassed a person in uniform on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. After being posted on TikTok, the video garnered thousands of views. Police noted that other videos were also taken from surveillance cameras in the lobby of the restaurant, but those were not made public due to the ongoing investigation.
In response to the incident, the owner of Central Pizza said he was shocked by what he saw. “I have never seen something like that,” Jason Bikakis told WGN-TV. Bikakis shared that he saw the woman slap Nolte Jr. “Slap him, yes, in the face like she knows him for a long time,” Bikakis said.
According to the Hartford Courant, this isn’t the first time Nolte Jr. has made headlines. In July, a local TV station saluted him and thanked him for his service and volunteer work.
“Sean’s a really good guy. He joined us right out of high school and we’re lucky to have him,” Chief Nick Wachter of Rescue Fire Company 37, a volunteer fire and EMS department in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, told the Hartford Courant. “He enlisted in the Navy so he’s not local anymore, but he’s still a member.
In regards to pursuing charges, Berlin Police Chief Chris Ciuci said the woman is in their custody and charges are forthcoming. “She was in a public restaurant and she created alarm by her language and by assaulting someone,” Ciuci said. “So, there are charges related to breach of peace and assault in the third degree that we’re pursuing.”