Authorities arrested a Long Island, New York, man on Friday for threatening to kill supporters of President Trump and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) at the Republican congressman’s campaign headquarters, police said.
Police said Martin Astrof, 75, threatened to kill Zeldin’s campaign worker and other Trump supporters at Zeldin’s Nesconset campaign office in Suffolk County on Friday morning, and almost ran over the worker with his vehicle when he “backed his car up in an aggressive manner,” the New York Post reported.
Astrof, who is a registered Democrat according to Suffolk County voter registration records, fled the scene in his vehicle before authorities apprehended him at his home on Friday afternoon.
Zeldrin spoke out against the attack Friday night, tweeting that his volunteer should not have been “targeted” for working hard to support a candidate he believes in:
In the US, political scores are settled at the ballot box, not by trying to kill your political opponents. Donato Panico is a great American, supporter of @realDonaldTrump & one of my campaign vols. He shouldn't have been targeted like this today for his passion & involvement. https://t.co/Rh8Ae6MR4x
— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) July 7, 2018
Zeldin invited the campaign worker, Donato Panico, to attend Trump’s State of the Union address in January for his efforts to feed first responders after 9/11.
Authorities charged Astrof with one felony count of making a terroristic threat and one count of second-degree reckless endangerment, police said. Astrof is expected to be arraigned on those charges Saturday.
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