(AP) – An 18-year-old Donald Trump fan faces a felony charge after police say he threatened two Kamala Harris supporters with a 2ft machete as they campaigned outside an early voting site in Florida.

Caleb James Williams is charged with aggravated assault on a person 65 or older and misdemeanor display of 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 suburban Jacksonville library on Tuesday afternoon specifically “to protest and antagonize the opposing political side.” Carrying Trump flags, they started yelling at a group of Harris supporters and it escalated.

Key displayed a photograph taken by a witness of a smiling Williams “holding a machete in an aggressive and menacing posture above his head”. The Harris supporters he allegedly threatened are women aged 71 and 54.

“This goes far beyond expressing free speech. To say your song is your First Amendment protection, but that goes out the window the moment you raise a machete over your head,” Key said. Neptune Beach is an upscale suburb of 7,000 residents with a median income of $110,000, according to census records.

Williams, a server at the restaurant, was being held Wednesday afternoon at the Duval County Jail on $55,000 bond after making his first court appearance. If the registered Republican is released, the judge ordered him to stay 1,000 feet (300 meters) from any polling place, except to vote alone and wear an ankle monitor.

Duval Public Defender Charlie Cofer, whose office was assigned Williams’ case, declined to comment. Williams’ father did not return messages left on his cellphone. The minimum sentence for aggravated battery of a senior in Florida is three years in prison. The maximum is 15.

Key said the seven juveniles with Williams do not appear to have committed any crime, but the investigation is ongoing.

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

“Violence and intimidation have no place in our democratic process. The Duval County Democratic Party stands with those trying to express their opinions peacefully and without fear of reprisal. We urge all citizens to continue to engage in civic activities in a respectful and lawful manner,” Henry said in a statement.

Dean Black, Duval’s Republican chairman, thanked police for arresting Williams, but said in a statement that Democrats and others were to blame for the angry political atmosphere surrounding the election.

“In an environment of high political tension, where President Trump has survived two assassination attempts and Republican supporters are being mocked as Nazis and called ‘trash’ by Joe Biden, we call for calm,” Black said.

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

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

Ryan Routh, who was accused last month of tagging 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 now a registered independent. He also wrote a book calling for Iran to assassinate Trump.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.