Warning: Language in this article may offend some readers.
A white woman has been filmed accusing four Black soldiers of stealing money at a pancake restaurant in a racist tirade - mere minutes after she offered to pay for their meals, they say.
The unidentified woman approached the men while they were eating their meals at an IHOP - a chain of pancake restaurants - near their base in Fairfax County, Virginia. In a live video shared to Facebook, soldier Joé Jeffers Jr recounted the events, claiming the woman offered to help pay for their food and thanked them for their service.
Jeffers claimed the woman then gave the men US$6 towards their bill. She also told them she was an ex-Marine.
But minutes later, the woman returned to their table and demanded the money back, Jeffers said, insisting she had given them US$30.
When the soldiers explained she had only given them US$6, the woman launched into a racist tirade, calling them "c***sucking n*****".
Jeffers and his fellow soldiers began recording the confrontation on their phones, with Jeffers later posting the footage to his TikTok account.
In the first video, the soldiers can be heard asking the woman to leave. She refused, instead sitting down next to Jeffers to block him from escaping the booth.
The video then shows a fellow customer, who identifies himself as an Air Force veteran, approaching the woman. He tells her: "You need to find another place to be… you're making a problem."
Jeffers is then seen climbing over the table.
As the soldiers leave the restaurant, the woman can be heard asking other diners: "Are you the thin blue line? Are you BLM? Are you Antifa?"
In a second video shared to TikTok, the woman can be seen yelling abuse at the veteran and threatening to fight him.
"Motherf*****, I will drop you. You wanna go? You wanna go?" she confronts the veteran.
Jeffers, visibly shaken, said he was "at a loss for words" in his Facebook video, which he started filming when he returned to his car.
"Seeing it on the media is different, but when you actually encounter people who think less of you because of the colour of your skin... this is America," he said. "This is the country we serve and defend. These are the people we fight for."
He said IHOP's manager told him the woman "does this thing all the time".
The US Army is currently investigating the incident. A representative for IHOP told The Hill they do not condone the statements made by the woman and will not tolerate bigotry of any kind.
