Politician Says He Was Staple-Gunned In The Head By Opponent's Supporters [Graphic Photo]

By Mae Rice in News on Mar 7, 2016 4:12PM

A politician running for an Illinois house seat alleges his opponent's supporters attacked him outside of his office Sunday night, punching him and shooting him in the forehead with a staple gun when he asked them to stop hanging his opponent's posters on the premises.

Robert Zwolinski, 30—a Democrat running in the 4th House District against incumbent Cynthia Soto—Tweeted the following photo Sunday night, after the incident:

One of Zwolinski's alleged attackers, a 26-year-old man, filed a counter-report with police Sunday night, alleging that Zwolinski attacked him. The unnamed man told police that Zwolinski “threw him to the ground” and repeatedly punched him in the mouth; he was treated at St. Mary’s Hospital after the incident.

Zwolinski told Chicagoist his version of events: He was driving back to his Noble Square campaign office at the intersection of Ashland and Fry with his girlfriend, he said, when he saw two strangers—a man and a woman—stapling Cynthia Soto posters up. (The women was somewhere between 24 and 26 years old, according to Zwolinski's police report.)

Zwolinski said he got out of the car while his girlfriend waited inside, and asked the two to stop hanging the posters. They responded, he said, by attacking him. The man punched him the chest, Zwolinski said, and the woman, who was “screeching… like a velociraptor,” hit Zwolinski in the head with a beer bottle, kicked him while he was on the ground, then shot him in the head with the staple gun they had been using to hang their posters.

“Nothing knocked me out,” Zwolinski added. “I was conscious the entire time.”

After the staple gun attack, according to Zwolinski, his assailants realized they’d gone too far, and a passing driver started “wailing on the horn.”

According to Zwolinski’s police report, the offenders then fled the scene, heading North on Ashland in a black Chevy Equinox.

Zwolinski said his staple wound required six stitches, and that his assailants cracked his nose. As of Monday morning, he told Chicagoist he felt alright, just sore, “like I won against Mike Tyson.”

He added that his female assailant was more vicious than the male one.

“She grabbed on my groin! I have scratch marks on my butt [from her]!” he said. “I’m almost 100 percent sure she attacked first.”

The police investigation is ongoing, and no one is currently in custody.