Local business owner Brandon Lewis was at a campaign rally today live streaming governor candidate Lee Zeldin's speech, when a man grabbed Zeldin and apparently attacked him during the event in Fairport.
In another post on social media, Lewis characterized the attack as an "assassination," but in an interview with The Batavian he said that post was kind of "heat of the moment." He doesn't know for sure that the person intended to kill Zeldin.
Lewis, who owns The Firing Pin in Bergen, said that at one point, after the man was wrestled to the ground, somebody yelled "He has a knife. He has a knife." But Lewis said he never saw a knife.
The man yelled at Zeldin before grabbing him, claiming "You're done, Lee. You're done, Lee." Lewis said the man sounded drunk.
"It seemed when he grabbed him he wasn't letting go," Lewis said. "He wasn't going in for a hug, let's put it that way. He didn't have good intentions."
Shortly after the attack, somebody asked for a first-aid kit, and Lewis went to his truck to retrieve his kit. He shot the picture above when he returned a minute or so later, he said. He said the first-aid kit was apparently to assist Alison Esposito, Zeldin's running mate, for her scraped knuckles from the incident.
Top Photo: By Brandon Lewis of a man on the ground after a man apparently grabbed Lee Zeldin during a campaign rally in Fairport.
