Sean Nolte Jr: Woman slaps Navy sailor at pizzeria on 9/11 anniversary in viral video
Police are investigating an incident that saw a woman caught on camera slapping a Navy sailor at a Connecticut pizzeria on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Footage of the incident, originally posted on TikTok, reportedly shows a woman cursing at a man wearing a naval uniform. "You disgust me, you piece of sh*t," the woman is heard yelling at one point, before slapping the man, who is not in the camera view. The incident took place around 9:45 pm on September 11, 2021, at a pizzeria in Berlin, Connecticut. Authorities identified the victim as Sean Nolte Jr, a submariner in the United States Navy, Newsweek reported.
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Nolte took to Facebook and recounted the harrowing episode. He said he was off-base to get dinner with a friend when a woman entered the restaurant and began staring at him. Nolte, who was in uniform, said he smiled back politely and recalled how the woman walked in and out of the pizzeria several times in the span of 10 minutes. She re-entered to pick up her order once it was ready, but before exiting, she allegedly looked at Nolte again and sarcastically commented, "Nice smile." The sailor thanked her for the compliment and resumed his business.
However, less than a minute had passed when the woman stormed back into the pizzeria and launched a tirade against Nolte. She told the restaurant staff that his uniform was fake and that her husband was in the US Army. Nolte, in a bid to prove his credentials, pulled out his military identification and showed it to her. Nonetheless, the woman went to claim that his ID was also fake, and compared it to her dependent military ID. "This is what your ID should look like," she yelled.
Upon realizing he couldn't persuade the woman, Nolte told her, "Tell your husband thank you for his service for me, and have a nice day." The woman subsequently stormed out but came right back in to scream at the sailor. She reportedly told him he was disgusting, and the viral video of the incident was recorded from when the encounter began to escalate, according to Newsweek.
The woman is seen in the clip grabbing Nolte's black cap off the counter and hurling it to the floor. The sailor noted in his Facebook post how the woman grabbed his uniform and cover -- an eight-pointed hat with a visor that is part of the Navy Working Uniform -- and flung it down. When someone warns the woman that the incident is being recorded and her antics were caught on camera, she responds by cursing at Nolte and saying, "You disgrace the US".
"Being in uniform, I must maintain professionalism, so I stand there and proceed to wish her a nice day," Nolte wrote. "Well, looks like some of our own people can't recognize authenticity when they see it."
The video of the encounter was posted on TikTok later in the evening. It has since garnered millions of views and Nolte's original post has been shared nearly 1,000 times. The bizarre incident prompted the Berlin Police Department to launch an investigation, and authorities are currently seeking information such as the woman's identity. As of September 14, the woman is still at large and there has been no information from the public to help investigators identify the suspect.
If you or anyone you know has information related to the incident, you are urged to contact Berlin Police Department at (860) 828-7080 or email them at policechief@berlinpd.org