Florida man charged with intentionally driving into GOP voter sign-up tent





JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A man in Florida is under arrest after he deliberately drove a van into a tent where voters were being registered by local Republicans, authorities in Jacksonville said Sunday.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said via social media that 27-year-old Gregory William Loel Timm has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault on a person 65 years old or older, one count of criminal mischief and driving with a suspended license. The Republican party of Duval County said it had set up the tent on Saturday in order to register voters.

Timm was working as a stage hand and had been living in northeast Florida for two years, according to jail records and an arrest report.

Gregory Timm, 27, was a stage hand who had been referred work through the local International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, according to the arrest report released Sunday.

Jail booking information said he had lived in Jacksonville for two years.

The county GOP said via Twitter that six volunteers for President Donald Trump’s campaign “were intentionally targeted while registering voters.”

Local media said there were no injuries.

“Kind of out of the blue, a man approached us in a van, was waving at us, kind of a friendly demeanor, thought he was coming up to talk to us, instead he accelerated his vehicle and plowed right into our tent, our tables,” volunteer Mark Alfieri told television station WJAX.

Afterward, he backed up, recorded the damaged tent and scattered signs on his cell phone and made obscene gestures before leaving, Alfieri said.

The sheriff’s office says deputies responded to the scene after receiving reports of a dispute. The tent appeared to be set up in a parking lot. There were no online court records posted for Timm on Sunday morning, so it wasn’t known if he had a lawyer. Jail records show he was still in custody Sunday morning.

The heavily redacted arrest report didn’t offer a motive for the Saturday incident and didn’t reveal Timm’s political affiliations. Records from Arizona showed Timm registered to vote in 2011 as a “non-partisan.” Florida records showed no voter registration information for him.

No one on Monday answered a phone number listed on the arrest report.

Timm has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault on a person 65 years old or older, one count of criminal mischief and driving with a suspended license. There were no injuries. The arrest report said no drugs or alcohol were involved.

Bail was set at more than $500,000 on Sunday.

Citing the president of a local theatrical workers union, television station WTLV reported that Timm was training to be a sound engineer.

In a tweet, GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said, “These unprovoked, senseless attacks on @realDonaldTrump’s supporters need to end.”

Media bias is nothing new, but still cannot believe how little coverage the attack on @realDonaldTrump’s volunteers in FL received. If someone on the Right did this to liberal activists, CNN and MSNBC would be live from the scene of the crime. Instead, barely a peep. — Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) February 10, 2020

President Donald Trump retweeted that message and added, “Be careful tough guys who you play with!”

In a statement, the Duval County Democratic Party condemned what it called “this cowardly act of violence.”

“No one’s life should be placed in danger for exercising their First Amendment rights,” the statement said. “As Democrats, but more importantly, as residents of this great city of Jacksonville, we call on our fellow citizens to act with dignity, civility and respect for one another during the election cycle and beyond.”

At approximately 2:45 p.m. a multi-colored brown and gold van driven by what is described as a white male in his 20s or 30s, accelerated into a crowd of volunteers at the Kernan Village shopping center located at 11900 Atlantic Boulevard. — Duval County GOP (@DuvalGOP) February 8, 2020

#JSO has arrested the suspect who drove through the voter registration tent in the area of 11900 Atlantic Boulevard. Gregory Timm has been charged with Aggravated Assault, Criminal Mischief, and Driving While Driver’s License Suspended. pic.twitter.com/zGKbR2VTg0 — Jax Sheriff's Office (@JSOPIO) February 9, 2020