Run of the mill agitators.
Early voting nearly turned violent in Charlotte on Wednesday, when a Republican volunteer was confronted by a man who showed a gun at a Mecklenburg County polling place, police said.
Derek Partee, who is black, said three white people angrily approached him at the Steele Creek polling place, which is southwest of Charlotte near Carowinds.
Partee posted photos of the three on Facebook, including a photo in which one heavily tattooed man can be seen openly carrying a pistol in a hip holster. Partee said he called the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and filed a report.
In a news release late Wednesday, CMPD said it had one person in custody who officers intended to charge in the case. The two others who were with the suspect will not be charged because police determined they violated no laws.
The suspect was carrying a BB gun, according to CMPD’s news release.
“Down here in Steele Creek working the polls just threatened by two white males (and) a white female who called me a N***a, Black piece of s*** and he exposed his weapon,” Partee wrote in his post, but using uncensored language. “I had to back off and call CMPD, folks are getting bold and forward in the time.”
In an interview with the (Raleigh) News & Observer Wednesday night, Partee said he arrived at the polling place around 2:30 p.m. when a fellow volunteer pointed out the three people in the parking lot who had been taking photos that day and previously. Partee, who is a retired homicide detective from New York, said he decided to take down the license plate number of their car — but before he could, the man with the apparent gun jumped out of the car and confronted him.
“He said something about being a Republican, I said I am a Republican, he said ‘Motherf***** you ain’t s***,’” Partee said.