Report: Man threatened people with gun

A Navarre man was put behind bars on $80,000 bond after he allegedly threatened people inside a residence with a gun and got into a scuffle with law enforcement when they arrived on scene.
The suspect, Christopher Bennett, 45, of Safronia Shores Road was ultimately tazed and arrested for the incident and charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon without Intent to Kill, Battery, Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer and Resisting an Officer with Violence.
According to the arrest report, several deputies with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to a disturbance on Safronia Shores Road in Navarre last Friday at around 3 a.m. after someone called 911 to report Bennett had a gun and was threatening people inside of the residence with the weapon.
Dispatch was also notified that the suspect told the people inside the residence that he would “be waiting for law enforcement at the front door” and that he would be “dying tonight”.
When officers arrived, Bennett was on the front porch, and all four deputies who responded drew their guns on the man in fear that the suspect might have had the gun on him.
When the deputies asked Bennett to show them one of his hands, which was noted as being partially hidden on his left side, he did not comply.
The suspect asked the deputies several times to shoot him, according to the report.
Originally, deputies did not see a gun on the suspect. After Bennett continued to ask the deputies to shoot him, one of the deputies quickly ran up to the suspect and grabbed him with both hands on his left side.
That was when the two began to scuffle and the suspect made a quick movement with his left hand. Deputies believed the suspect was either going to draw a gun or was attempting to take the deputy’s firearm.
The suspect then hit the deputy on the shoulder. Fearing for the officer’s safety, one of the responding deputies pulled out his Taser and Tased the suspect.
When the Taser probes struck the suspect, the probes seemed to have little to no effect on the man, according to the arrest report. That was when another set of probes were shot at the suspect and the second set disabled the suspect and he fell to the ground.
When officers attempted to put Bennett in handcuffs while he was on the ground, the suspect kept trying to reach around as if he was going to pull out a handgun or grab an officer’s gun. Because of his actions, the deputy Tased the man again to get him to comply with their requests to not resist arrest.
During the scuffle, one of the Taser wires shocked one of the deputies, but he was not injured, the report indicated.
When deputies spoke with the victims inside the residence, they stated Bennett had been acting aggressively towards them all night and had pulled one of the victim’s hair so hard, the suspect actually ripped strands of the woman’s hair out.
At one point during the argument inside the home, one of the victims stated they saw Bennett go into one of the bedrooms and retrieve a rifle and began to load it. That’s when the suspect began to point the weapon at a number of the individuals inside of the home. All of the witnesses who saw Bennett with the gun believed he was going to shoot them or law enforcement after he started making threats.
Bennett was later transported to Gulf Breeze Hospital for injuries he sustained during the scuffle.
He remains behind bars at Santa Rosa County Jail as of press time.