Michigan man kills himself after running over 80-year-old Trump supporter

Police in Hancock – a city located in the state’s upper peninsula – said the man in question was under investigation for allegedly running over an 80-year-old man at about 5.45pm local time on Monday.

The elderly man was described as a supporter of the former president who was posting a political sign in his yard, according to police. Police also said the man displayed stickers and flags that were supportive of law enforcement. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition with serious injuries after the man on the ATV struck him, authorities said.

Investigators said they had identified a suspect in the case by Monday evening, and he had been linked to a total of three cases which were apparently “politically motivated”.

That man later contacted officers, told them he wanted to “confess a crime involving an ATV driver within the last 24 hours” and asked to be picked up, police said in a statement. When police arrived at the scene, they found a 22-year-old man dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The assassination attempt prompted bipartisan condemnations of political violence, including from the vice-president, Kamala Harris, who is expected to be the Democratic nominee to face Trump in November’s presidential race after Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he would not pursue another term in the White House.

On 17 July at the Air Zoo Aerospace and Science Museum in Portage, Michigan, which by car is about nine hours away from Hancock, Harris said political violence was unacceptable.

“There must be unity around the idea that while our nation’s history has been scarred by political violence, violence is never acceptable,” Harris said. “There can be no equivocation about that.

In a statement posted on Facebook on Tuesday, Hancock police and the nearby Houghton county sheriff’s office issued their own condemnation of “violence against any political candidates”.