A 69-year-old woman suffering from a lung disease was punched in the face outside a Donald Trump rally she was protesting against.
Shirley Teter, who wears an oxygen tank, was knocked flat on her back in the attack at the rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday.
Describing herself to WLOS as a lifelong protester, Teter said she attended the rally because Trump’s campaign is “sickening my heart.”
She said: “Whenever groups of them would start chanting ‘Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!’ I would chant back, ‘Dump! Dump! Dump! Dump!’ It was kind of comical.”
After the rally she recalled: “I said, ‘You better learn to speak Russian,’ [a reference to Trump’s praise of Vladimir Putin] and I said, ‘The first two words are going to be ha ha.’ He [her assailant] stopped in his tracks, and he turned around and he just cold-cocked me.”
The punch saw Teter fall backwards onto her oxygen tank leaving her with sore ribs, a swollen jaw and a graze to her elbow. She was taken to hospital where she was given the all-clear from any broken bones.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Richard L Campbell after officers took statements from Teter and eyewitnesses.
Another man was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge at the same rally.
Matt Price told the Citizen Times he saw Teter hit the ground and heard a loud “metal clank” as her oxygen tank struck the concrete.
He said: “Then a little eruption ensued and some people chased down that guy and there was a little heated moment right there before the cops stepped in.”