Texas man arrested after punching elderly poll worker who told him to take off Trump hat

A man was arrested at an early voting site in Texas after reportedly punching an elderly poll worker “several” times when he was asked to take off his political baseball cap.

On Thursday, October 24, at the Johnston Branch Library in Bexar County, a couple entered a polling station and “the man was wearing a hat that supported a political candidate,” confirmed Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar. in a press conference shared in Facebook on Friday.

The man had taken off his cap to vote, but put it back on before leaving the building, Salazar said.

The suspect was identified as Jesse Lutzenberger in an incident report obtained by PEOPLE. The elderly man was not identified.

The report also stated that the suspect “was wearing a red ‘MAGA’ (Make America Great Again) or (Donald) ‘Trump‘ baseball cap when the incident occurred.

At Friday’s briefing, Salazar described the suspect as a “large man” in his 60s, while the victim was “an older man, 69 years old, doing his job” as an early voting clerk.

Commenting on the elderly man telling the suspect he couldn’t wear his hat inside after putting it back on, Salazar said, “The early voting clerk informed him that was unacceptable and then began escorting the person outside,” stating the suspect “appeared to throw an arm toward the victim.”

“The victim appeared to push the suspect. At that point, the suspect turned and threw several punches directly at the victim’s face,” the sheriff told reporters.

Salazar confirmed that the suspect had been “jailed for injury to an elderly person,” which is a felony, and stated that the elderly victim had “some marks on his face,” but nothing too serious.

According USA today, ABC News and KSAT-TVLutzenberger posted $30,000 bail and was released from the Bexar County Adult Detention Center.

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The Bexar County Criminal District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE.

According to the National Conference of State LegislaturesTexas is one of 21 states that bans “campaign apparel/buttons/stickers/signs” near polling places.

“Everyone is going to survive this, but I’m just using this as an opportunity to try to tone down what’s going on there,” Salazar said of Thursday’s incident during Friday’s briefing.

“There is nothing here worth getting hurt, going to jail for, these elections are going to happen one way or another,” he insisted, after opening the conference by saying that things had “got ugly” the night before. .

“Thankfully, there was nothing life-threatening about what occurred, but it was still an ugly incident and I can’t imagine anything like this ever happened during my time here as sheriff, and I certainly hope to never see it again.” “, said. saying.