The Jacksonville Sheriff’s department announced Gregory William Loel Timm was arrested for allegedly driving a van into a Republican voter registration tent in a Jacksonville area parking lot.
First Coast News, an ABC/NBC affiliate in Jacksonville, reported Timm “faces multiple charges, including two counts of aggravated assault on a person 65 years of age or older, one count of criminal mischief and driving with a suspended license.”
As previously reported, members of the Republican Party of Duval County were registering voters when they say that a man driving a 1980s model brown van drove through the tent, destroying tables and chairs.
Republican volunteer Nina Williams told Jacksonville’s Channel 4 news that she was almost hit. “It happened so quickly,” she told the news station. “I just barely got out of the way.”
First Coast News subsequently reported that Timm was a new union member who was in training to work in the theater:
The man arrested Saturday after reportedly crashing a van into the tent of a Republican voter group was training to become a sound engineer on the First Coast, according to the president of the Jacksonville branch of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.
Susan Phillips, President of the Jacksonville branch of I.A.T.S.E. Local 115, told First Coast News that Gregory William Loel Timm, 27, had recently joined the union.
The crime drew the ire of President Trump, who cautioned future would-be attackers to “be careful tough guys who you play with!”
Law Enforcement has been notified. Be careful tough guys who you play with! https://t.co/1Pq0hOrzy2
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2020
The Duval County Democratic Party immediately condemned the attack:
The @DuvalDEC condemns this cowardly act of violence. No one’s life should be placed in danger for exercising their first amendment rights.
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.
We look forward to @JSOPIO’s arrest of the perpetrator.
The @DuvalDEC condemns this cowardly act of violence. No one’s life should be placed in danger for exercising their first amendment rights. (1/3) https://t.co/j2ceUI0HFb
— Duval County Democratic Party (@DuvalDEC) February 9, 2020
