‘I’ll come back and kill-you:’ Pro-Trump Westport man arrested for threatening volunteer at Fairfield Democratic headquarters; Republicans and Democrats call for civility
Fairfield political leaders condemned an incident Friday in which a Westport man became threatening and confrontational with a volunteer at the town Democratic Town Committee headquarters.
Fairfield police arrested Michael Silverstein, 61, of Westport, Friday and charged him with second degree breach of peace.
Silverstein approached the DTC headquarters at 1 Sasco Hill Road around 4 p.m. Friday, according to a police report. A volunteer at the headquarters asked if he needed help and Silverstein immediately launched into a long, profanity-laden “verbal assault" and “claimed that Trump supporters are being attacked across the country,” the report said.
Despite being asked to leave multiple times, Silverstein continued yelling at the volunteer and as she took out her phone to take a picture of him, slapped it out of her hand. When he got back in his car, the volunteer managed to take a photo of his license plate. Silverstein allegedly told her, “Go ahead. I’ll come back and kill you."
Fairfield Police quickly identified Silverstein through DMV records and found him at his home in Westport later in the afternoon Friday. When questioned about the incident, he admitted to the altercation at the DTC headquarters.
Silverstein was issued a misdemeanor summons and is scheduled to appear at the Fairfield County Courthouse in Bridgeport on Nov. 5 at 9:30 a.m.
The Fairfield Democrats said in a Facebook post Friday that their volunteers “though shaken, are safe following this extremely upsetting event.”
“I condemn this incident in the strongest possible terms,” Fairfield First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick, a Republican, said in a statement over the weekend. “I have requested that the Fairfield Police Department increase their presence in the area of DTC Headquarters. These types of actions, intolerance, and incivility have no place in our community.”
Silverstein, a chiropractor who supports President Donald Trump, told the New Haven Register that he became incensed when he saw a Biden/Harris sign outside the DTC headquarters. Though he regretted letting “my emotions get the best of me,” he reiterated his anger that Trump supporters “on a daily basis have been attacked, harassed and threatened,” according to the Register.
In a joint statement issued about the incident, Steven Sheinberg, the chairman of the Fairfield Democratic Town Committee, and Jack Testani, chairman of the Republican Town Committee, said that Fairfield Democrats and Republicans had united "to unequivocally denounce such behavior and call for civility in all political discourse throughout the 2020 campaign season and beyond.”
Lieutenant Antonio Granata, a public information officer for the Fairfield Police, said that Friday’s incident was rare.
“Leading up to the election, we have not seen anything like this,” he said.
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