Video of the verbal assault was posted to social media Sunday by the Laotian couple's child, Van Khon. It shows US Marine Corps veteran Alex Wolpert yelling at the elderly immigrant for wearing a camouflage shirt as the couple was walking near 16th Street and Broadway in Sacramento.
"Okay, he's going to take it off," the man's wife is heard responding as she tries to calm Wolpert down.
"I'm a Marine, okay? I fought for my country!" Wolpert yelled. "And this motherf*cker is going to wear that sh*t? No! No! F*ck you! F*ck you!"
"I'm writing this on behalf of my parents," Khon noted in the video caption.
"They live in Sacramento, CA… All my father was doing was going to the farmer's market and looking for parking after he dropped my mom nearby. As soon as he found a parking spot, this man [Wolpert] walked and came out of nowhere yelling, screaming and harassing him and asking him why he was wearing that (he had a short sleeved camouflage cotton t-shirt on)," she continued.
"My father knows little English and is in his mid 70s and didn't answer him or didn't understand what he was saying to him, that angered the man more and he grabbed my father by his collar [and] threatened to [kill him]" she added.
The video footage does not show Wolpert grabbing the man by his collar, which may have taken place before the recording started. In addition, Khon claimed that Wolpert accused the man of being a Vietnamese "communist," even though, according to Khon, her father actually fought on the American side of the Vietnam War as a member of the Laotian government's armed forces.
In a recent statement given to local news station Fox 40 Sacramento, Wolpert apologized for his actions.
"To the gentleman 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," he wrote.
"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," he continued.
Wolpert told Fox 40 that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and is planning to admit himself to a rehabilitation center to get help.
