Kevin Cichowski, a 46-year-old Democrat listed as a candidate for Florida governor, was arrested Friday after police say he battered two elderly people inside a Palm Coast home, hit one with a cane, threw a cellphone at the other, and threatened to kill them and any law enforcement officers who responded.
The Flagler County Sheriff's Office charged Cichowski with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of battery on a person over 65, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, tampering with a witness, and two counts of robbery by sudden snatching. As of Monday, jail records showed he was being held without bail at the Flagler County Sheriff's Office Jail, with an arraignment hearing set for May 5.
Cichowski is one of dozens of candidates running to replace Governor Ron DeSantis ahead of the August 18 Democratic primary. He previously ran for Palm Coast mayor in 2021. By Monday, his campaign website appeared to be down.
The incident began Friday morning when a 911 caller, one of the two victims, reported that Cichowski had battered them inside their Palm Coast residence. The caller told dispatchers that Cichowski had threatened to kill them multiple times and vowed to kill law enforcement if they were called, the Daily Mail reported.
The Flagler County Sheriff's Office relayed the caller's account:
"The 911 caller, who was one of the victims, further reported the suspect, Kevin Cichowski, had threatened to kill them multiple times and stated he would kill law enforcement if they were called."
When deputies arrived, they found the two victims hiding in a bedroom. One victim was bedridden and could not leave the home. Police said Cichowski had a gun. After evacuating the victims, deputies confronted Cichowski and placed him under arrest.
The charges paint a grim picture. Cichowski allegedly struck one victim with a cane and hurled a cellphone at the other. Both victims were older than 65, AP News confirmed. The robbery-by-sudden-snatching counts suggest items were forcibly taken from the victims during the encounter.
The arrest did not end at booking. While being transported to the detention facility, police said Cichowski made suicidal statements. He was placed into protective custody under Florida's Baker Act, which allows for involuntary, emergency mental health examination and temporary detention of up to 72 hours for individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others.
This is not Cichowski's first encounter with law enforcement. He was previously arrested in 2024 on charges of domestic battery, domestic battery by strangulation, and false imprisonment. The details of how that case was resolved were not included in available records.
The pattern raises a straightforward question: how does a man with a 2024 arrest for strangulation and false imprisonment end up on the ballot as a candidate for the highest office in Florida? The Florida Division of Elections lists him as a Democratic candidate for governor, and nothing in the filing process apparently flagged his record.
It is not the only case of a Democratic officeholder or candidate facing serious criminal allegations in recent months. The party has struggled to police its own ranks when legal trouble surfaces.
As officers escorted Cichowski to a patrol vehicle, he denied wrongdoing. The Daily Mail contacted him for comment. His only recorded statements came during the arrest itself:
"I haven't done anything wrong. This is insane."
Sheriff Rick Staly praised the coordinated response of his deputies, the Real-Time Crime Center analysts, and 911 dispatchers. He framed the situation as one that could have ended far worse, given the reported threats and the presence of a weapon.
Staly said in a statement:
"When responding to a situation where a suspect has a weapon and has threatened to kill the victims and law enforcement, it's critical that we do everything we can to safely de-escalate the situation and quickly rescue the victims from immediate danger. I commend our deputies, RTCC analysts, and the 911 dispatchers for working together for a safe resolution and arrest the suspect before the situation escalated to a violent ending."
Florida's 2026 gubernatorial race is already drawing a large field. Dozens of candidates have filed to replace DeSantis, and the Democratic primary on August 18 will winnow the pack. Cichowski's candidacy, never a front-runner affair, now appears effectively over, though no formal withdrawal had been announced as of Monday.
His political history is thin. The 2021 Palm Coast mayoral bid did not result in a win. His gubernatorial filing with the Florida Division of Elections placed him among a crowd of long-shot hopefuls. But the arrest transforms him from an obscure name on a ballot into a case study in how little vetting accompanies candidate filings in many states.
Florida Democrats have faced a string of ethics and legal problems among their own elected officials in recent years, and internal party leadership has sometimes been slow to act when trouble emerges.
The broader pattern extends beyond Florida. National Democratic leadership has had to navigate internal revolts over embattled members facing ethics scrutiny, and the party's track record of holding its own accountable remains uneven at best.
Several key facts remain unclear. The exact relationship between Cichowski and the two elderly victims has not been confirmed, though the domestic battery charges from 2024 and the setting, a private home, suggest a family connection. Whether the victims sustained injuries requiring medical treatment was not disclosed in the sheriff's office account.
The status of the firearm police said Cichowski had is also unresolved. No weapons charges were listed among the counts filed Friday, which raises the question of whether the gun was legally possessed or whether additional charges may follow.
And the 2024 arrest, for domestic battery by strangulation and false imprisonment, hangs over the case. If those charges were dropped or reduced, the public deserves to know why. If they were still pending, the question becomes even sharper: why was Cichowski free to allegedly victimize the same or similar people again?
Accountability in politics is not supposed to be a partisan concept. But when a candidate for governor sits in jail without bail, charged with beating elderly people in their own home, and his party has nothing to say about it, the silence tells its own story.
The victims in that Palm Coast bedroom, one of them bedridden, both hiding from a man who allegedly threatened to kill them, are the only people in this story who matter. The "D" next to a candidate's name does not make that easier to explain away.