Three Georgia thugs are behind bars after an altercation with Dalton resident David Grant over a Trump for President sign in the man’s front yard.
Police allege Alexander Moreno, 17, Hector Ayala, 20, and Mauricio Rodriguez, 18, were walking along Woodland Drive Tuesday when Rodriguez allegedly a Trump for President sign from Grant’s yard, crumpled it up and tossed it into the street, WRCB reports.
Grant, who was in his yard at the time, yelled out to the men to demand they fix the sign.
“I said you got one choice,” Grant, 42, told the news site. “Come and fix this sign!”
When they ignored Grant, he continued to follow them and grabbed Rodriguez by the vest.
“At that point, Alexander Moreno lifted up his shirt to reveal a handgun in a holster. He pulled the gun out and pointed it at Grant, telling him to let Rodriguez go,” the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.
“He said you are about to get a cap popped in you’re a**!” Grant told WRCB, adding that his Hispanic neighbor also intervened.
“I said, ‘If you got the balls to pull your gun, shoot it!” Grant told The Washington Post.
“The neighbor was standing out here beside his driveway and sees the man pull the gun out,” he continued. “My neighbor looks at me dead in the eye and (said): ‘I got you, hang on.’ He runs in the house and comes back out with his pistol and says: ‘nobody is shooting him.’”
Grant said the men “all ran off together. They were throwing gang signs, saying, ‘You’re all dead.’”
“(They were) saying Spanish words,” he added. “I don’t know what they were saying.”
Grant told the Dalton Daily Citizen it wasn’t the first time that vandals have targeted his home.
“It isn’t anything new. We have even had people drive by the house with paintball guns and shoot up the house,” he said. “We have a lot of Christmas displays and they have been vandalized in the past.”
It also wasn’t the first time he’s had a gun in his face.
“I have had it done before,” Grant said. “It wasn’t anything scary. With these kids, you can pick who is going to pull the trigger. If they aren’t really scared and in fear of their life, they aren’t pulling the trigger, they are just trying to intimidate you. I never feared for my life or anything like that.”
Regardless, Grant’s wife, Rhonda Grant, told ABC 9 she was “terrified” for her husband during the ordeal.
A neighbor called Dalton police, who tracked the men to nearby Avenue E and arrested all three on numerous felony charges.
“Moreno was charged with aggravated assault, possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a handgun under the age of 18 and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Rodriguez was charged with making terroristic threats, criminal trespass and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. Ayala was charged with disorderly conduct,” the Daily Citizen reports.
All of the men were also charged with a violation of Georgia’s Criminal Street Gang Act, according to WRCB.
Grant told the Post he believes the incident highlights exactly why he’s supporting Donald Trump for president.
“Trump stands against all that gang violence and stuff, people coming over here and brining in guns,” Grant said. “ … That’s what they are doing.”
The Trump sign ordeal is only the latest in racial tensions between whites and Hispanics in the small town along the Tennessee border, he said.
Illegal immigrants have “overran the area,” Grant said.
“We got family that served in the Civil War,” he said. “We put our flags up, had people steal flags out of the yard. It’s just been an ongoing thing. We’re the only people here who stand up for what we believe in. With political issues, people can’t handle it.
“When you’re messing with Trump, you’re messing with us.”
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