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Lt. governor's wife says she was verbally assaulted while shopping at grocery store | TribLIVE.com
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Lt. governor's wife says she was verbally assaulted while shopping at grocery store

Tony LaRussa
Tony LaRussa
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AP
Gisele Fetterman in September 2015, at a gathering to announce that her husband John Fetterman, then the mayor of Braddock, was running for U.S. Senate.
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Tribune-Review
Gisele Fetterman, wife of Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, says she was verbally harassed while shopping at a grocery story without her security detail on Sunday.

The wife of Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor says she was verbally assaulted while picking up some items at a grocery store near her home on Sunday.

In a post to her Twitter account, Gisele Fetterman, wife of Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, said she went “to the local grocery store and was met by and verbally assaulted by this woman who repeatedly told me I do not belong here.”

Warning: The video in the tweet contains explicit language.

Fetterman told Tribune-Review news partner WPXI-TV that she didn’t notify her security detail when she went to an Aldi store in a shopping plaza along Route 30 (at Ardmore and Yost boulevards) in Forest Hills, because it is only a few minutes away from her home in Braddock.

Fetterman told The Washington Post that while she was waiting in line to pay for her items, a woman recognized her and said: “There’s that (n-word) that Fetterman married. You don’t belong here. No one wants you here. You don’t belong here.’ ”

Fetterman, 38, who is a native of Brazil, said she has been threatened and insulted before, but never in person.

“The fact that she was so comfortable and bold to just do it to my face with an audience … that was really scary,” she told the Post. “I was just kind of frozen in that moment. I was shaking. I was so nervous.”

Fetterman said a customer who witnessed the incident asked if she was OK and whether she felt safe enough to leave the store.

Fetterman said the woman, who has not been identified, followed her out of the store to the parking lot, pulled down her facial covering and continued to spew racial slurs.

Fetterman was able to record a portion of that encounter on her cellphone before driving away.

“It was shocking,” she told the Post. “It took me a really long time to process it. It was just really, really sad.”

After leaving, Fetterman called her state police security detail, apologized for going to the store without them and provided them with a photo of the woman’s license plate.

She posted details about what happened to her Twitter account.

“I love, love, love this country but we are deeply divided,” Fetterman posted on social media. “This behavior and this hatred is taught. Someone taught her this and she is likely teaching this to others. If you know her, if she is your neighbor or relative, please, please teach her love instead.”

On Monday, Gov. Tom Wolf addressed the incident in an email.

“The ethnic intimidation and racist speech spewed at the Second Lady of Pennsylvania is shameful and unacceptable,” Wolf said. “Racism and hate speech are always unacceptable, and unworthy of Pennsylvanians. No Pennsylvanian should ever be made to feel unwelcome in our commonwealth because of their race or ethnicity. Gisele Fetterman spends much of her time devoted to making our state and world a better place and she — and every Pennsylvanian — deserves our respect, not the hatred too often displayed by people who seek only to further divide this country at a time when unity is so desperately needed.

“The Second Lady has my and Frances’s full support and gratitude for her tireless work to make Pennsylvania the diverse, inclusive place it is today, even in the face of such ignorance and adversity.”

In reaction to Wolf’s comment, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman took to Twitter on Monday.

“I am *deeply* grateful to the Governor for his support of @giselefetterman,” he wrote. “The outpouring of love + support from Pennsylvania’s leadership + citizens has been truly humbling. Gisele + I love this country and our commonwealth deeply. Thank you PA, for standing with Gisele.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, tweeted that people should use the incident as an opportunity to teach others.

“It’s on us to teach our children kindness, acceptance and inclusion, and condemn hate whenever and wherever we see it,” Casey said.

Nearly 300 other people posted comments on Fetterman’s Twitter account expressing sympathy and anger over the incident.

Tony LaRussa is a TribLive reporter. A Pittsburgh native, he covers crime and courts in the Alle-Kiski Valley. He can be reached at tlarussa@triblive.com.

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