A Florida man allegedly plowed through a Republican Party voter registration tent at a shopping center in Jacksonville on Saturday.
Gregory Timm, 27, was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, criminal mischief and driving with a suspended license several hours later.
The Republicans in the area were registering people to vote in a mobile tent just outside Kernan Village Shopping Center when Timm allegedly drove his brown Chevrolet van straight into the tent.
According to the Duval County GOP Twitter account, his actions sent people scrambling for safety and narrowly missed the volunteers.
After driving through the tents, Timm reportedly stopped to take a video of the scene and made an obscene gesture at the campaign volunteers, and then drove off.
Nina Williams, one of the volunteers, said in an interview, “It happened so quickly, I just barely got out of the way.”
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, he was arrested several hours later, and charged with two counts of Aggravated Assault on a Person 65 Years of Age or Older, one count of Criminal Mischief, and Driving While Driver’s License Suspended.
They are looking at the incident as an interruption of the political process, although they are yet to comment if the assault is in fact, politically motivated.
Not long after, Donald Trump took notice of the incident and sent a tweet warning the suspect to be “careful who you play with.”
Duval County GOP Chairman Dean Black also released a statement pertaining to this incident, and said, “The Republican Party of Duval County will not be intimidated by these cowards and we will not be silenced.”
Meanwhile, the Duval County Democratic Party announced that they do not support this “cowardly act of violence.”
In another posting, they said, “As Democrats but more importantly residents of this great city of Jacksonville, we call on our fellow citizens to act with dignity, civility and respect for one another during this election cycle and beyond.”