NEPTUNE BEACH, Fla. – Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump told News4JAX on Wednesday that they are used to being heckled by the opposing side while waving signs outside polling locations.
But what happened at the Jacksonville Public Library Beaches Branch in Neptune Beach on Tuesday afternoon was “outrageous,” “scary” and “sad.”
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The Neptune Beach Police Department said an 18-year-old, who now faces an aggravated assault charge, “brandished a machete” to intimidate voters.
Caleb Williams was with a group of eight teenagers between the ages of 16 and 18 who drove up in a truck around 4 p.m. Tuesday, jumped out with Trump flags and “confronted peaceful Harris-Walz sign wavers,” Duval County Democratic Party Chair Daniel Henry said.
So far, Williams, who was captured on camera holding the machete over his head, has been charged with a crime.
“They have no business intimidating us like that and thinking that they can get away with it. It is outrageous,” Harris supporter Kris Matson said Wednesday outside the same polling location. “I knew that campaigning would be heating up, but I had no idea that something of that intensity would be happening in our community.”
Matson said she arrived for her 4-6 p.m. sign-waving shift shortly after the incident and police were already rolling in with their lights flashing. She called their quick response “very comforting.”
“I am used to getting things shouted at me and thumbs down and other gestures, but it is like, ‘Whatever.’ But to have somebody actually verbally threatened and intimidated like that is not right,” Matson said.
Trump supporter Kimberly Bragg, who was not at the polling site on Tuesday, agreed with Matson.
“It is very sad that there is any type of intimidation going on. I think we all have the right to vote for whoever we want and we are supposed to love each other no matter what,” Bragg said. “I want this to be a fair, accurate election. I don’t see why we should be intimidating anybody because then it’s not going to be fair.”
Bragg said she’s been heckled before but tries to respond with love, but what happened Tuesday was beyond inappropriate.
Matson said a friend who was there during the incident said the truck “came roaring in on two wheels” before the teens “poured out” and “came storming over.”
“To have a pack of young, angry men rushing us when we were out here peacefully, waving our signs -- invading our space, screaming at us. It was very scary,” Matson said of what her friend described.
Henry, the leader of the Duval Dems, and the Republican Party have also responded, condemning the teen’s actions and praising the swift response by the Neptune Beach Police Department.
Neptune Beach Chief of Police Michael Key said Williams aggressively brandished a machete toward two women, ages 71 and 54 years old. They called the police and no one was harmed.
Williams was charged with aggravated assault on a person 65 years or older (second-degree felony) and improper exhibition of a firearm or dangerous weapon (first-degree misdemeanor).
Records show Williams registered with the Republican Party of Florida in March of last year.
He made his first appearance in court on Wednesday and was ordered to wear a GPS monitor and to not come within 1,000 feet of any polling site unless he is casting his ballot when released. He was still being held on a bond of $55,000 as of 1 p.m.
Key ensured that the department would do everything to maintain safe polling locations.
“It was a safe location to vote today before this incident, and it will continue to remain a safe location to vote,” Key said on Tuesday. “We’re committed to that, and we’re always committed to looking at plans to make it safer.”