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A Navy sailor was assaulted at a pizzeria in Berlin over the weekend in an attack which was caught on video which has since gone viral on online social media.
Sean Nolte Jr., an enlisted sailor at the Naval Submarine School in Groton, was at Central Pizza at 96 Mill St. around 9.45pm on Saturday when a woman told him he “dishonored the United States” and hit him. .
In a Facebook post On Saturday, Nolte said the woman glanced at him, and since he was in uniform, he politely smiled back at her. “As she leaves, she looks at me and says ‘Nice smile’ very sarcastically. I say ‘Thank you, have a good day ma’am’ and I go on with my day,” he wrote. “Not even 30 seconds later, she comes walking back and shouts to the staff at the pizza place ‘That’s a fake by the way, my husband is in the military …'”
He said he showed her his military ID card, but she insisted it was fake and showed him his military ID, saying his should look like his.
“As I realized that it was impossible to persuade this woman that I am not a fake, I politely say ‘Thank your husband for the service he has given me and have a nice day’,” he wrote. “She storms out of the pizzeria and comes back, gradually yelling at me…” He said she scolded him, grabbed his uniform and slapped his face.
His post had over 1,500 comments and had been shared over 1,500 times on Wednesday evening.
The Berlin Police Department was seeking to identify the woman who attacked the sailor and published photos of her in a press release. In a statement released Wednesday morning, police said they received several clues on Tuesday that led police to a probable identification of the woman. They will issue an arrest warrant against her when they have enough information, according to a statement by Acting Police Chief Chris Ciuci.
George Bikakis, son of Central Pizza owner Jason Bikakis and member of the family business, said that although he was not an eyewitness, he extracted all security footage from the incident and reviewed them . He said his father was at the checkout when the woman picked up his order.
“She was standing there and seemed a little beside himself. All of a sudden, she sees the young man in his uniform and she starts questioning him, ”said George Bikakis. “Where’s your ID? here and that. The young man, who was a calm and kind kid, gave the ID and she paid for the pizza. She left to put the pizza in the car, then came back. My dad did a double take, like, ‘What’s going on here? Then it went ballistic, and that’s where the Facebook video came in.
George Bikakis said his family grew up in the area and his father had been there since the 1960s, and “we had never seen anything like this before”.
“The kid was minding his own business, and all of a sudden the lady started questioning him,” he said. “It’s based on what I saw in the (surveillance) video, there is no sound, but it looks like she kept punching it for proper identification.”
Doug Capazzi, who served as a medical unit mechanic and combat rescuer in the U.S. Army from 1998 to 2007, said the woman’s behavior towards the sailor was disrespectful.
“Whatever the situation, whether it’s a military person or not, if you get a hold of someone it’s unacceptable disrespect,” said Capazzi, who lives in Waterford and works with veterans through organizations such as the Guardians of the Purple Heart, Veteran Equine Therapy Services and Irreverent Warriors.
Capazzi said he was happy to hear that police were looking for the assault suspect. He said he would have called the police if he had been the victim of such an attack “because this kind of behavior is not acceptable. You cannot walk around beating people in uniform.”
Capazzi, who helps promote the mental health of Army veterans, said he hoped the sailor would look to his command and his comrades for help in dealing with the incident.
“Anyone who experiences something like this, you absolutely have to tell someone about it,” he said. “The biggest advice we always give is to talk to your buddy, to talk to the person standing next to you in training, they might be the voice of reason and be able to give you advice and guide you if it happened again. “
Harry Hansen, US Legion Department adjutant in Connecticut and US Air Force veteran, said such an attack on a serviceman was “rare and shocking.”
“This is a very unusual incident, normally the military are welcome everywhere,” said Hansen. “I find it very shocking that someone picks on someone in uniform.”
A spokesperson for the submarine school declined to provide further comment as the investigation was still ongoing.
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