SWAMPSCOTT, MASS. (WHDH) - A man is accused of attacking another man in an inflatable President Donald Trump costume. The victim, Jonathan Silveira, said he told the suspect to leave him alone before things escalated.
“He came up behind me and kicked me,” Silveira said. “I lost my balance and I felt the pressure, but it was more like a push. That’s when I hit the pole. Then he kind of grabbed the railing, so I couldn’t get away or get off him. He was trying to get me to go to the ground, and I wasn’t going to the ground.”
“Your honor, I’d like to apologize,” Michael Curll said, the suspect. “I’m sorry.”
Curll appeared in court on Monday. He’s charged with assault and batter with a dangerous weapon. Prosecutors say the entire incident unfolded Saturday.
Curll said the man in the costume was the one who provoked him.
Curll said it started when he was hit in the face with a flag pole, leaving him with a black eye.
“I am the victim, look at my eye,” Curll said. “I got hit in the head with the flag.”
“I had the flag in my hand and he kept trying to bump me, so maybe that way,” Silveira said. “I wasn’t trying to hit nobody.”
Prosecutors wanted cash bail set for Curll, but the judge released him and told him to stay away form the victim and attend therapy.
“So what happened?” 7NEWS asked Curll. “Why did you go after the Trump guy they’re saying?”
“I didn’t go after anybody,” Curll said. “He came after me. He hit me in the head with the flag.”
“What are you hoping happens to him now?” Silveira was asked. “He’s been charged with assault and battery.”
“That [the] justice system goes through the process, I don’t want anything more, anything less,” Silveira said.
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