A 17-year-old wearing a T-shirt with former President Donald Trump on it was arrested over the weekend and accused of punching a 70-year-old woman at a Stuart, Florida, rally in support of Vice President Kamala Harris and abortion rights, police announced Monday.
The teen was arrested and charged with battery on a person over the age of 65 — a third-degree felony — after witnesses at the rally reported the woman had been struck following a separate altercation involving the teen and an adult man, the Stuart Police Department said. The woman fell to the ground, but she declined medical assistance at the scene.
She later identified herself to local news outlets as Kathleen Tomasko.
“I’m standing there and people are moving and this kid just turned around and he punched me. I don’t know where he came from,” she told the Treasure Coast Palm.
“He punched me in the gut and knocked me on the ground, and I fell back and hit the ground,” she continued. “Thank goodness the two ladies were behind me so I didn’t hit my head.”
In a separate interview with NBC affiliate WPTV, Tomasko said she was still shocked from the incident.
“I never thought there was going to be trouble,” Tomasko said. “I never thought anything like this.”
The rally at Roosevelt Bridge, also called “Rally on the Bridge” was put on by the Women’s March in support of the Harris campaign and Florida’s Amendment 4 ballot initiative. If passed, it would amend the state’s constitution to protect abortion rights.
Tomasko told WPTV that the teen who hit her was one of a small group of Donald Trump supporters who attended the rally.
“They were hollering at other people, and it was going back and forth,” she told the station. “Things they were saying were rude and crude.”
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A spokesperson for the Stuart Police Department confirmed to HuffPost on Tuesday that the teen was wearing a T-shirt with an image of the former president at the time of the incident. He was booked into jail and released to his parents.
