18-year-old accused of threatening voters at polling stations with machete

(AP) – An 18-year-old Donald Trump supporter is facing a felony charge after police say he threatened two Kamala Harris supporters with a two-foot machete as they campaigned outside an early voting site in Florida.

Caleb James Williams is charged with felony aggravated assault on a person 65 years or older and displaying a dangerous weapon, Neptune Beach police records show.

Police Chief Michael Key Jr. said Williams and seven 16- and 17-year-olds drove to a library in suburban Jacksonville on Tuesday afternoon specifically “to protest and antagonize the opposing political side.” With Trump flags in hand, they started yelling at a group of Harris supporters, and things escalated.

Key showed a photo taken by a witness of a smiling Williams “waving a machete above his head in an aggressive, threatening posture.” The Harris supporters he allegedly threatened are women aged 71 and 54.

“This goes far beyond expressing freedom of expression. To say your piece is your protected First Amendment right, but that goes out the window the minute you hold a machete over your head,” Key said. Neptune Beach is an upscale suburb with a population of 7,000 and a median income of $110,000, according to census data.

Williams, a restaurant busboy, was being held in the Duval County Jail on $55,000 bail Wednesday afternoon after making his first court appearance. If the registered Republican is released, the judge ordered him to stay 1,000 feet away from any polling place except to cast his own ballot and wear an ankle monitor.

Police have charged the suspect with intimidating voters at a polling place in Florida.

Duval District Attorney Charlie Cofer, whose office was assigned Williams’ case, declined to comment. Williams’ father did not return messages left on his cell phone. The minimum penalty for aggravated assault of a senior in Florida is three years in prison. The maximum is 15.

Key said the seven youths with Williams did not appear to have committed any crimes, but the investigation is ongoing.

Duval County Democratic Chairman Daniel Henry said Williams committed “a disturbing act of intimidation.”

“Violence and intimidation have no place in our democratic process. The Duval County Democratic Party supports those who seek to express their opinions peacefully and without fear of reprisal. We urge all citizens to continue to respectfully and lawfully participate in civic activities,” Henry said in a statement.

Duval Republican Chairman Dean Black thanked police for Williams’ arrest but said in a statement that Democrats and others are responsible for the angry political atmosphere surrounding the election.

“In an environment of high political tension, with President Trump surviving two assassination attempts and Republican supporters being mocked as Nazis and called ‘trash’ by Joe Biden, we urge calm,” Black said.

President Biden, speaking on Tuesday about a comedian who called Puerto Rico “a floating island of trash” at a Trump rally over the weekend, saying, “The only trash I see floating there is his supporters.”

The 19-year-old man from Pennsylvania Thomas Matthew Crooks, who took shots at Trump at a rally in July, was a registered Republican but had made a $15 donation to a Democratic group. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Ryan Routh, who was accused last month of plotting Trump on his Florida golf course in hopes of shooting him, was once a registered Democrat but says he voted for Trump in 2016. He is currently a registered independent. He also wrote a book calling on Iran to kill Trump.