A Florida teenager faces two felony charges after police say he threatened two women with a machete and engaged in voter intimidation or suppression tactics at an early voting location, police said.

Eighteen-year-old Caleb James Williams was the only adult among a group of eight youths who arrived at the Beaches Branch Library in Neptune Beach Tuesday afternoon with what Neptune Beach Police Chief Michael Key Jr. said to be one intention to “protest and antagonize. the opposite political side”. That antagonism moved from the parking lot to the immediate “attack” on the signs, which escalated until Williams brandished the machete “in an aggressive, threatening posture overhead” at two women, aged 71 and 54, Key said in during a press conference.

Key did not share the political affiliations of Williams and the other 16- and 17-year-olds, but the Duval County Democratic Party said the sign takers were supporters of the Harris-Walz Democratic campaign, meaning the group of men were supporters of to Trump. -Vance Republican Campaign.

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Police, who were called to the polling place shortly after the group approached the signs, arrested Williams for aggravated assault on a person 65 or older and misdemeanor display of a dangerous weapon. The Neptune Police Department later said on Facebook that its ongoing investigation had uncovered new video footage showing Williams “committing an additional felony count of voter intimidation or suppression at a designated polling place,” leaving him with another charge of crime.

The other members of the male group “have not crossed the criminal threshold for criminal charges at this time,” Key said, but the investigation is ongoing.

“The group was there for no other reason than bad intentions, to cause a disturbance,” Key said during the news conference. “This goes beyond expressing free speech. Saying your peace is your First Amendment right, but that goes out the window the moment you raise a machete over your head in a threatening manner.”

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Williams was being held at the Duval County Jail on $55,000 bail and made his first court appearance Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. If he is released, the judge ordered him to stay 1,000 meters away from polling places unless he casts his own vote and that he must wear an ankle monitor, the publication reported.

Aggravated assault of an elderly person in Florida carries a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum sentence of 15 years in Florida. There is no minimum sentence for the third-degree felony of voter suppression or intimidation.

Last week, a Texas man was arrested and now faces a felony charge after punching a voting-age employee who told him to take off his “Make America Great Again” hat while at a early voting place. The suspect threw “several” punches at the 69-year-old poll worker and was booked with third-degree felony injury to an elderly person.

A Scripps News/Ipsos poll last week found that 62 percent of respondents say violence related to this election is “somewhat” or “very likely.” More than half even said they would support using the US military to prevent potential threats around Election Day.