White woman's racist tirade in Connecticut store caught on video

Over the next minute, the woman, whom police officials identified as Corinne Terrone, hurled a highly offensive racial epithet four times at a black man and a black woman in a ShopRite grocery store in East Haven, Connecticut, the video shows. She repeatedly swore at the man and woman and twice spat in their direction. All the while, Terrone’s two children looked on, seemingly frightened.

By the time Terrone’s tirade came to the attention of local officials Saturday morning, videos of the incident had been viewed and reposted by thousands of people on Facebook and Instagram.

That same day, Terrone resigned from her job as a clerk for Hamden Public Schools in Connecticut, school district officials said.

“We don’t tolerate anyone saying even close to the kinds of things that she said in that supermarket on Friday night,” Jody Goeller, superintendent of Hamden Public Schools, said Monday. “What she said was vile and disgraceful.”

The East Haven Police Department also began investigating the incident Saturday. As of Monday morning, no charges had been filed against Terrone, a spokesman for the department, Lt. Joseph Murgo, said.

“We’re urging anybody, especially the victims of this racist tirade, to come forward, and let us explore some criminal charges,” Murgo said.

Terrone, of New Haven, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The police have yet to speak directly with either of the targets of Terrone’s racist slurs or witnesses to it, Murgo said. But they believe the incident started when Terrone got into an altercation with a man on a motorized scooter.

One video that has been shared online starts with Terrone shouting a threat to “put you in one of those permanently.” She swears and shouts, telling someone to watch the way they talk to her in front of her two young daughters. Shortly after that, Terrone utters the racial slur for the first time.

After that, a man appears to run toward Terrone, who encourages him to “put your hands on me, come on.” She pulls her phone out, as if to start recording the confrontation. The man then appears to knock the phone to the floor.

After that, the video shows Terrone spitting on the floor in front of the black man and the black woman, who appeared to be with him. Later, as the two are walking away from the confrontation, she appears to spit at the man again.

After the incident, Terrone reached out to police dispatchers and continued her tirade with “more offensive language,” Murgo said. Other than that, the police had not been in contact with her.

A spokeswoman for ShopRite, Maureen Gillespie, said the company was working with law enforcement and had provided surveillance footage.

“We are saddened and deeply disturbed that this occurred in our store and affected our customers,” Gillespie said.

Based on the social media footage and video from ShopRite, Terrone could be charged with breach of peace if someone were to come forward to make a complaint, Murgo said. It was also possible that her spitting could lead to an assault charge, he said. The police are still trying to get in touch with the victims in the video, he said.

Additionally, because Terrone’s children were present during the incident, the police could also explore bringing charges that have to deal with “impairing the morals of children,” he said.

The Hamden school district filed a report with Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families on Saturday, Goeller said. The department’s commissioner, Vannessa Dorantes, said in a statement that the department could not comment on whether it was looking into this incident but that it typically investigated reports of parents “acting erratically or in an impaired fashion” if there was concern that children might be at risk.

On Monday morning, with the Hamden community still reeling from the video, the staff at Hamden High School was meeting with students to discuss the incident and help them process it, Goeller said.

“I don’t see how any right-minded person can view that video and not be shocked by it and appalled by it and sickened by it,” Goeller said.

“We want to make sure that our kids are OK,” he added later. “And we look at this as an opportunity to talk about these matters.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.