Video: Man swears at family, yells "Trump will stop you" in anti-Muslim tirade at Texas beach
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas – A man faces criminal charges after police say he went on an obscenity-packed, anti-Muslim tirade directed at a family on a Texas beach.
South Padre Island police arrested Alexander Jennes Downing, 35, of Connecticut, after responding to reports of a disturbance on May 3rd, according to WTIC. Police took Downing into custody for public intoxication after deciding he was a danger to himself and others.
Video taken by the family that afternoon shows a man dressed in a green Under Armour tank top and blue shorts walk over to them and confront members of their group, yelling, "You're a (expletive) Muslim, (expletive)." As another beachgoer tries to push the man away, he shouts, "You will never ever, ever, stop me, my Christianity, from rising above your Sharia law. Your Sharia law don't mean (expletive) to me."
At one point the man can be heard hollering "Donald Trump will stop you. Donald Trump will stop you!" Before storming away, video shows him grabbing his crotch and yelling something obscene at the family, in front of several children.
The family posted the video to their YouTube account with a description of what took place:
“While enjoying our time at the beach during a family reunion, our kids and us had to experience ugliness and aggressiveness in the worse shape and form possible. We were staying at the South Padre Pearl hotel and went to the beach through their private access.
My father was approached by two women who were also enjoying their time. The women asked him to help with talking to a stranger who was harassing them. All my father said to the guy was “please enjoy your time and have fun and let everyone else here enjoy their time.” The guy seemed to listen and walked away. He then came back to my father and started throwing racist comments.
He was yelling so loud that my uncles and my brother came over from the water to see what was going on. The insane man came close to the kids and that’s when my uncle stood up to him and defended us and the kids, including my four-year-old cousin, four- and two-year-old nephews. The video here shows a glimpse of what we all had to experience.
It is worth mentioning that we contacted South Padre police and the man left on his way back to the hotel. A little after that the police came and told my father to call them again if he harasses us again. We went back to playing in the water and sand. Then the insane man came back with even more aggressiveness and more racial slurs.
We called 911 again as you may be able to hear on the video. After about 20 minutes of him going crazy, he left back to the hotel. The police then came back and they arrested the man at the hotel restaurant. When we spoke to the hotel management, they said they couldn’t do anything at the time because he is in police custody and that if they see him, they will evict him.
The next morning my uncle saw him at the front desk and talked to the management. They plainly told us that they can’t do anything about it right now and that if he does this again he will be arrested. I don’t understand what it takes for this hotel to take actions. Do they need someone to get hurt?
Finally, thanks to the cops who took the insane man right away and assured us that this is a nice place but every now and then they get a crazy person like this.
Overall we enjoyed the lovely island and we will definitely go back to South Padre again. We surely will never go back to Pearl South Padre Hotel, Texas again.”