PALM COAST, FL – On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 10:41 p.m., Flagler County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) deputies responded to Sesame Park in Palm Coast after receiving a call for service regarding a disturbance with weapons. Deputies met with two victims who explained that after returning home from a bar with 48-year-old Charles Kenneth Zinzow, Zinzow retrieved a firearm from the vehicle and pointed it at the two victims and threatened to kill them before turning and pointing it at himself.
One of the victims was able to safely remove the firearm from Zinzow before fleeing from the residence and calling law enforcement from a nearby park. While deputies spoke with the victims, Zinzow called one and said he had a rifle, two loaded magazines, and one in the chamber and to send law enforcement to his house so he could “take one of them down with me.” He continually told the victim that he was “ready to go” and would fire at any law enforcement officer that came near the house.
A neighbor called 9-1-1 to report hearing a single gunshot from the suspect’s residence. FCSO deputies made telephone contact with Zinzow who admitted firing a “test shot” into a vacant lot beside the home. The FCSO Crisis Negotiator Team (CNT) was called in just after midnight to try to speak with Zinzow and get him to put down the weapon and surrender. CNT spoke with Zinzow off and on until nearly 4 a.m. when Zinzow told CNT that he was going to sleep.
Around 6:00 a.m. on the morning of February 20, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team made contact with Zinzow and he eventually agreed to come outside unarmed. At 7:00 a.m., members of the FCSO SWAT team took Zinzow into custody.
“Our team immediately recognized that this man was having a mental health episode but was still armed and they began working to de-escalate the situation and continued to do so throughout the entire night until he was safely taken into custody,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “This situation could have turned deadly, but the through our defensive tactics and techniques training and de-escalation crisis intervention training the incident was peacefully resolved with no one getting hurt, even if it did take about 8 hours.”
Zinzow was charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He remains in the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility on a $20,000 bond.
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