Texas Man Arrested After Punching Elderly Poll Worker Who Told Him to Remove Trump Hat

The incident occurred at a polling station in Bexar County on Thursday, Oct. 24, authorities said

Michael M. Santiago/Getty

A man has been arrested at an early voting site in Texas after reportedly punching an elderly poll worker "several" times when he was asked to remove his political baseball cap.

On Thursday, Oct, 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," Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar confirmed in a news briefing shared on Facebook on Friday.

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

The suspect was identified as Jesse Lutzenberger in an incident report obtained by PEOPLE. The elderly man wasn't named.

The report also stated the suspect was "wearing a red 'MAGA' [Make America Great Again] or [Donald] 'Trump' baseball cap when the incident took place.

OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty

In Friday's briefing, Salazar described the suspect as being a "larger man" in his early 60s, while the victim was "an elderly man, 69 years of age, doing his job," as an early voting clerk.

Commenting on the elderly man telling the suspect he couldn't wear his hat inside after he put it back on, Salazar said, "The early voting clerk then informed him that that was unacceptable, and then began to escort the person out," stating the suspect "appeared to throw an arm back toward the victim."

"The victim seemed to push off of the suspect. At that point, the suspect then turned and threw several punches right at the face of the victim," the sheriff told reporters.

Salazar confirmed the suspect had been "booked for injury to an elderly person," which is a felony charge, stating the elderly victim had "some marks to his face" but nothing too serious.

According to USA Today, ABC News and KSAT-TV, Lutzenberger posted a $30,000 bond and has been released from the Bexar County Adult Detention Center.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

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

Per the National Conference of State Legislatures, Texas is one of 21 states that prohibits "campaign apparel/buttons/stickers/placards" near polling places.

"Everybody's going to survive this, but I'm just using this as an opportunity to try to bring down the tone of what's going out there," Salazar said of Thursday's incident during Friday's briefing.

"Nothing here is worth getting hurt for, going to jail for, this election is going to happen one way or another," he insisted, after starting the conference by saying things had "got ugly" the night prior.

"Thankfully, there was nothing life-threatening about what occurred, but it was still an ugly incident that I can't think of anything like this happening during my time here as sheriff, and I certainly hope to never see it again," he said.