It took more than one Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s deputy to restrain Thomas Sosnowski of Gulf Breeze. After a confrontation with law enforcement last week, Sosnowski faces several charges of resisting arrest and battery.
According to his arrest report, the incident began when case workers from the Department of Children and Families contacted the sheriff’s office regarding checking on the status of Sosnowski’s wife and her child at their Gulf Breeze residence.
Mrs. Sosnowski told DCF and law enforcement she was scared of her husband after comments he made against government employees. In the arrest report, Sosnowski told DCF employees he would ‘dismember their bodies’ if they returned to his residence. His wife told authorities her husband had also put padlocks on the doors and she was scared her husband would lock her and the DCF employees inside the home.
Upon arrival to the scene, reports said deputies contacted Thomas through his cell phone and asked to step outside to talk. Mr. Sosnowski did comply with deputies when coming out the front door. However, according to the report, Sosnowski was very confrontational with authorities during the initial meeting.
Reports said after deputies asked to see his wife and her child and Mrs. Sosnowski came out the front door, Thomas them re-entered the home and locked himself inside. He also avoided contact efforts made by deputies on scene. During this time, DCF officials took Mrs. Sosnowski and her child into safe custody in which the female had visible bruising to her neck, in which she told authorities was inflicted by her husband.
After multiple failed attempts to contact Sosnowski, reports said deputies opted to bring a SWAT unit which then set up a perimeter around the residence. Sosnowski emerged from the residence and refused deputies orders ‘to get down’ by SWAT members.
With his refusal to comply, a deputy “fired a less lethal round which struck Mr. Sosnowski in the left flank area,” according to the arrest report.
However, reports said this action did not keep Sosnowski from being any less combative. In the report, the 43 year old male continued to not comply with deputies and even struck one law enforcement officer in the chest in an attempt to be handcuffed. Sosnowski was tased on more than one occasion and continued to be combative towards deputies, in which he used his elbows, feet and knees to strike the law enforcement officers. According to the arrest report, one deputy required medical attention following the incident. “A total of six deputies were required to affect the arrest of Sosnowski. While (he) was resisting violently…all along while being given orders to stop resisting,” the report said.
Sosnowski endured some minor wounds to the face and head after being looked after by paramedics on scene, he was also taken to the Santa RosaMedicalCenter for treatment to facial injuries. Sosnowski was then to the Santa Rosa County Jail, where he remains in custody.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: SRSO: Multiple deputies needed to apprehend combative man