The husband of the Phoenix woman who went viral earlier this week for making racist comments to a woman and receiving a slap in return has apologized for his wife's behavior.
Footage of the incident was uploaded to Facebook over the weekend, and shows events unfold inside the gas station store.
In the video - recorded by Facebook user Greg Conn - a white woman wearing a white dress and sunglasses can be seen verbally berating customers after telling a Hispanic lady (since identified as Karina Rodriguez) to "go back to her country".
Watch the situation unfold in the video below:Writing on Facebook, Conn captioned the video: "Racism is alive and well, this just happened at the shell gas station in Phoenix, Greenway and 7th st."
Conn also added context to what is seen in the video, writing:
"I was checking out and this lady comes into the store all flustered yelling at the clerk to get another clerk to help because the line was getting long and her pump wasn’t working.
"Another clerk came out and she said to the young lady in the video, she can go checkout in an authoritative manner. The young lady said 'thank you but I don’t need your assistance'. She was clearly annoyed with the ladylike everyone else in the store.
"At this time the lady told the clerk not to serve her, told her she can leave, and go back to her country. That's when I took out my phone, and the rest is here in the video."
The video shows Conn confronting the woman for making a racist remark, referring to her as "Karen". Per Dictionary.com, 'Karen' is a "mocking slang term for an entitled, obnoxious, middle-aged white woman".
As the tension builds, the white woman, since identified as Tamara Harrian, can be heard asking Rodriguez, "Where are you from?" and "Where were you born?"
Harrian them woman tells Rodriguez: "You're going back to Mexico!"
Then, as Rodriguez (seen wearing a pink shirt) turns away from her, Harrian grabs her arm, and is met with a slap across the face.
Conn then records the woman leaving the store, as he tells her she deserved the slap and it was "self-defense".
In an update, Conn wrote in the comments section: "The irony behind this picture. Even after listening to her racially filled rant this guy [presumably the clerk] still walked her to her car and cared for her needs."
Now, Bob Harrian, the husband of Mrs Harrian, has now appealed directly to Karina Rodriguez, the woman who slapped his wife, Tamara.
Offering an apology in an interview with Fox10, he said:
"I'm just so sorry that this happened. You never walked into that store thinking something like this was going to happen. I understand, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what she said."
Refusing to condone his wife's behavior, he continued: "I just have to tell you this - it's her mental illness. A year ago she would never have done, never have even thought of that."
Harrian claimed that Tamara's behavior was a result of a break-in at their home last year, and said that she's developed signs of fabrication. He added that he hoped that the incident would be enough to convince her to seek treatment.