Alison Dirr

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

APPLETON - As various agencies heightened security in downtown Appleton on Tuesday during the visit from presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, police confirmed that they had gotten a report of a man carrying a gun.

Police encountered the man, who was legally carrying a holstered handgun, at the corner of College Avenue and Walnut Street, Appleton police Capt. Todd Freeman said. Police just told him about the report and he eventually walked off, Freeman said.

"We didn’t turn him away,” he said, and there was no report made.

Freeman declined to identify the man, but on Facebook, open-carry activist Charles Branstrom said he was the person police spoke with.

"Most of the people were decent and respectful and talked with us," Branstrom wrote on Facebook, including a selfie with officers in the background. "There was several that made us feel the bern and were nothing but rude, using profanity and really showed what was wrong with society. Thank you Appleton Police Department for the security detail and making us safe."

The Appleton Police Department, Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration, Appleton Fire Department, Outagamie County Sheriff's Department and State Patrol were present this morning as crowds gathered outside the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, according to USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporters.

Joe Strauss, a Battalion Chief with the Appleton Fire Department, said the department will focus on capacity issues at the Fox Cities PAC today and again on Wednesday when Donald Trump is scheduled to appear at the nearby Radisson Paper Valley Hotel.

“We’re expecting as the week goes on we’ll have some other events,” Strauss said. “We have to just work around that.”

Appleton police Sgt. Dave Lund said the department is involved with the campaign stops but he did not disclose the department’s role.

Alison Dirr: 920-996-7266 or adirr@gannett.com; on Twitter @AlisonDirr; USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporters Katherine Lymn and Ethan Safran contributed to this story