PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Port St. Lucie police have identified a man they say was involved in a possible kidnapping on Sunday.
According to an arrest affidavit, officers responded to the Publix at 10400 Southwest Village Drive in Tradition on Sunday morning. Police said a 35-year-old woman asked a Publix worker for help, stating she'd been kidnapped and sexually assaulted.
Police say when they arrived, they made contact with Michael Francis Jablonski, 60, of West Palm Beach.
An officer attempted to speak with Jablonski in the parking lot, by the white van he was driving, but Jablonski started to get in the driver's seat. The officer said he used his foot to stop the door from closing and Jablonski began physically resisting.
Once the officer pulled the suspect from the car, the report states Jablonski started to run, then fell into some bushes. He was tased by an officer but still would not comply with orders and started to get up again.
WATCH: Chief Leo Niemczyk says victim and suspect know each other
Jablonski was eventually taken into custody and medically cleared at Tradition Medical Center. He was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting with violence. He was transported to St. Lucie County jail.
Chief Leo Niemczyk said on Monday that the suspect—a person known to the victim—took the woman from Davie, and sexually assaulted her in the parking lot of a restaurant in Port St. Lucie, before heading to the Publix in Tradition. He said Jablonski exited the vehicle at Publix, leaving her inside.
She then went into Publix and asked a worker for help. A Publix employee hid her in an office and called 911. Chief Niemczyk said he believes there was more than one Publix employee that helped the woman.
He said both the kidnapping and sexual battery allegations are still being investigated. Davie Police Department is investigating the kidnapping. Port St. Lucie Police Department is investigating the sexual battery.
