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 site, police said.

Eighteen-year-old Caleb James Williams was the only adult in a group of eight youths who arrived at the Beaches Branch Library in Neptune Beach on Tuesday afternoon with what Neptune Beach Police Chief Michael Key Jr. said. that it was a single attempt to “protest and antagonize.” the opposite political side.” That antagonism went from stagnating to immediately “attacking” those showing wavering signs, which intensified when Williams brandished the machete “in an aggressive and threatening stance above his head” toward two women, ages 71 and 54. Key said 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 those doubting the signs were supporters of the Harris-Walz Democratic campaign, meaning the group of men supported 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 felony aggravated battery on a person 65 years of age or older and misdemeanor display of a dangerous weapon. The Neptune Police Department later said on Facebook that its ongoing investigation revealed new video footage showing Williams “committing an additional crime of voter intimidation or suppression within the designated polling place,” leaving him with another crime charge. serious.

The other members of the male group “did not cross the criminal threshold to file criminal charges at this time,” Key said, but the investigation is ongoing.

“The group was there solely for bad intentions, to cause disturbances,” Key said during the news conference. “This goes far beyond expressing freedom of speech. Saying that your peace is your First Amendment right, but that is lost the moment you raise a machete over your head in a threatening manner.”

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Williams was being held in 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 feet away from polling places unless he casts his own vote and to 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 an elderly poll worker who told him to take off his “Make America Great Again” hat while at a polling site. anticipated. The suspect threw “several” punches to the 69-year-old poll worker’s face and was charged with third-degree felony injury to an elderly person.

A Scripps News/Ipsos poll last week found that 62% 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.