Laconia police have charged a 70-year-old local poet with assault after video showed him slapping a Turning Point Action volunteer in the face outside a Laconia elementary school where residents were voting Wednesday.
The Laconia Police Department identified the suspect as Stephen Redic and said he was arrested around 8 a.m. Wednesday on a misdemeanor simple assault charge and a disorderly conduct violation.
Police said Redic had no prior contact with the department. “We’re not familiar with him, meaning we’ve had no prior contacts,” Laconia Police Chief Matthew Canfield told Fox News Digital.
According to a police press release, Redic approached the Turning Point tent as he was leaving the polling location and said he wanted “to read a poem about rich people.” The poem itself does not appear in the video that circulated online.
The footage instead shows an exchange between Redic and the volunteer, who Turning Point described as 18 years old, that escalates as Redic’s voice rises. He can be heard shouting, “You sit there and dare to look me in the face and say I don’t know anything?” before jabbing his finger toward the young man and saying, “That’s what I know.” He then backhands the volunteer across the face.
Moments later, Redic curses and walks off camera as bystanders, audibly startled, discuss calling police.
Redic is the author of a 2023 poetry collection titled “Tying My Shoes,” in which he wrote of having met every U.S. president dating back to Dwight D. Eisenhower.
He is scheduled for arraignment on Dec. 10. It was not immediately clear Wednesday afternoon whether he had retained an attorney, and he did not respond to an attempt to reach him for comment.
The incident took place roughly 14 months after Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University while appearing under a similar outdoor tent. Kirk also founded Turning Point Action, the group whose volunteer was slapped in Laconia. The man accused of killing Kirk, Tyler Robinson, has pleaded not guilty and is due in court Monday for a hearing that could set a trial date.
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