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Bensalem Man Sentenced To Jail For Racist, Violent Rant At Convenience Store

BENSALEM, PA (CBS) -- A Bensalem man will serve jail time after a racist rant turned violent in a 7-Eleven store.

Forty-one-year-old David A. Sangmeister was sentenced Thursday to nine-to-23 months in prison on charges of aggravated assault, possession of an instrument of crime, and endangering the welfare of children.

Sangmeister had pleaded guilty to the charges in June, almost a year after he slung racial slurs at a clerk and assaulted a female customer in the convenience store, and then used his truck in an attempt to run down a fleeing bystander who tried to intervene.

Sangmeister, whose 10 and-12-year-old children were with him at the time, also brandished an assault rifle after getting out of his truck, racking it to chamber a round.

"Sorry is an understatement. My actions were unacceptable," Sangmeister told Judge Rea B. Boylan. "I stand here shaking in front of you, embarrassed about that evening."

Defense attorney Gerald Stein asked Boylan to impose a sentence of probation, as the crimes were "aberrational and not likely to occur again."

The judge said she did not think probation was appropriate for Sangmeister's crimes.

"It is clear to me," Boylan told Stein, "that there is a moment when this becomes something for which your client must be held criminally responsible."

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