DEXTER, Mich. — The small town of Hancock, Mich., has been shaken by a series of attacks that culminated in a hit-and-run on an elderly Donald Trump supporter using an all-terrain vehicle.
“The crimes reported in the city of Hancock appear to be politically motivated, involving victims who displayed Trump election signs as well as law enforcement appreciation stickers and flags commonly referred to as ‘thin blue line’ paraphernalia,” police said.
A 22-year-old driving an ATV Sunday went on a rampage through Hancock, vandalizing two vehicles. At around 5:45 p.m., the man, described as having a “thin build with possible dreadlocks or long hair,” removed a pro-Trump sign from a front yard. When an 80-year-old man came out to put the sign back in place, the suspect ran him over.
The victim was visiting his brother in town when the attack occurred, Hancock Police Chief Tami Sleeman said.
“The four-wheeler drove past, and he used some profanity towards our victim,” Sleeman told The Post. “It’s unknown exactly what was said. The guy driving the ATV pulled the signs out of the yard as the victim was putting them in. Then the victim went and grabbed them and tried to put them back in the yard when the four-wheeler came back and ran him over.”
Police reported, “The victim was transported to the hospital with serious injuries and remains in critical condition.”
A day later, after they’d begun canvassing the town and investigating the attack, police said the perpetrator had confessed his crimes to them over the phone and requested “someone to pick me up.” He was found dead at his home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Sleeman emphatically stated political disagreements will not be allowed to turn violent in her town.
“You have the right to express your political views. You are allowed to have signs in your yard. There’s nothing against the law with that,” she said. “In a time like this where everybody has different opinions, we have to respect those. One thing that we won’t put up with is violence.”
Hancock is a small town of around 4,500 people near the state’s northernmost point. Roughly as far from Detroit as Nashville is, the remote community has never seen politically motivated violence of this kind.
“Nothing to this magnitude have we ever dealt with,” said Sleeman.
Although Hancock Police deal with “everything that everybody else has” in terms of crime, the chief told The Post the town is a “safe community.”
Perhaps the most unnerving element of the case is that the suspect was not known to be any sort of threat before his attack. “Law enforcement has never had any contact with him,” Sleeman said.
Republican state Rep. Greg Markkanen stressed the attack is an exceptional event in the state’s sparsely populated upper region. The legislator, who lives in Hancock, took a break from picking berries to walk up a hill for cell reception to answer questions on the incident.
“This type of event is very, very unheard of in the upper peninsula of Michigan,” he told The Post. “I know it goes on in the lower peninsula of Michigan a lot. We’ve had an incident with the governor and other incidents.”
Markkanen was referencing the well-known 2020 kidnapping plot planned against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
For the moment, many facts of the case remain uncertain. “I’m trusting our local law enforcement and Michigan state police to do a very thorough investigation to find out if there is any background or any connections that this person might have had,” said Markkanen.