A Sacramento man who claims to be a U.S. Marine veteran apologized for his actions after being caught on video yelling at a man over his camouflage shirt.
According to a Facebook post of the video created by the man’s daughter, her father had just dropped off his wife at the farmer’s market before looking for a parking spot.
The video shows a man, identified by Fox 40 as Alex Wolpert, who claims to be a U.S. Marine, yelling at the man for wearing a camouflage shirt.
“I’m a Marine, I fought for my country. And this mother f*cker is going to wear that sh*t. No! No,” Wolpert yells in the video, visibly angry.
“OK, he’s going to take it off,” the wife says in the video.
“My friends died, my friends died,” Wolpert says. “And you’re going to wear this?”
According to the Facebook post, Wolpert grabbed the man by the collar and threatened to kill him. He also accused the man of being a Vietnamese communist.
According to the daughter, her father is in his mid 70s, speaks little English and fought in the Vietnam War for Laos on the U.S. side.
“I don’t understand how somebody can get this angry over an elderly man wearing camouflage T-shirt who never argued one word back to him,” the daughter wrote on Facebook. “He’s OK, but when this happened he was paralyzed, confused from fear and shock.”
Wolpert told Fox 40 that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dissociative identity disorder, and was checking himself into a rehabilitation center following the incident.
In a statement to Fox 40, Wolpert apologized for his actions:
“To whom it may concern,
On behalf of my recent actions I apologize, I was way out of line and I caused havoc and disrespect to not only myself but my family as well, since this incident my family and I have received multiple death threats and are having our public information posted via online.
To the gentlemen I accused and assaulted, words cannot describe the amount of sincerity I have for this situation, you and your family did not deserve this at all. To simply apologize for my actions will never be enough, as it was not excusable by any means at all, you deserve respect and appreciation and both of which I did not show you. I understand your forgiveness is not deserved by me and I have to accept what I have done. I can only hope this did not leave a scarring image on you or your family as it has me. I would like to apologize in person, as words written cannot express the sincerity one can portray with verbal communication. Again this incident has permanently scarred me and I can only hope it has not you, I do not deserve your forgiveness nor your sympathy as I only have myself to blame for this incident. Seeing my actions and my words have disgusted me. I only hope that you can forgive me and my actions. On your behalf I sincerely apologize and ask your forgiveness.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.”
