A teenage Trump supporter in northeast Florida has been arrested for brandishing a machete in a bid to intimidate Democratic voters outside a polling station, police said.
Caleb Williams, 18, was taken into custody on Tuesday outside Beaches Branch Library, an early voting location in Neptune Beach, roughly 20 miles east of Jacksonville. Williams was charged with felony aggravated assault on a person 65 or older and misdemeanor exhibition of a dangerous weapon.
The charges stem from allegations that he wielded an 18-inch blade at two unidentified women, ages 71 and 54, according to the Neptune Beach Police Department.
Williams was part of a group of eight teens, the rest of them either 16 or 17 years old, gathered at the site “to protest and antagonize the opposing political side,” Police Chief Michael Key Jr. told reporters at a news conference. Some of them waved flags for former President Trump, while both victims had signs signaling their support for Vice President Kamala Harris, he said.
The 71-year-old victim told police she was at one point approached by Williams, who “brandished a machete in an aggressive, threatening posture over his head,” according to Key. A 54-year-old woman standing nearby said she also feared for her safety and took a photo of Williams using her phone.
Video taken on the scene also shows the group chanting Trump’s name and waving their flags in the library parking lot, ActionJax New reported.
The local Democratic campaign said it was “deeply concerned” about the incident, with Key echoing the sentiment.
“I‘m extremely angry at this,” the police chief later told reporters.
“It’s is one thing to exercise your First Amendment right, which we so dearly take as a sacred right, but the moment you move to violence, that goes out the window,” he continued. “To say I’m disturbed is an understatement. I’m mad.”
None of the other juveniles in the group were arrested, but an investigation into the matter is ongoing.
