Related: South Palm Beach: Violent incidents prompt calls for greater PBSO presence
By Brian Biggane
South Palm Beach, despite its reputation as a quiet beachside community, experienced a second traumatic incident in a 17-day span when a man allegedly choked and threatened his mother with a knife at the Mayfair House condominium, according to officials.
Chadwick Alan Chauncey, 30, was charged by police with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, domestic battery by strangulation, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, and misdemeanor resisting arrest without violence after Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested him on Oct. 4.
However, prosecutors on Oct. 29 declined to pursue the felony charges in the domestic incident and instead filed only a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer without violence, according to court records.
The incident, which led many residents to attend the Oct. 13 Town Council meeting with safety concerns, followed another incident on Sept. 17 in which PBSO Deputy Donna Korb fatally shot resident Rex Magann after a struggle that ensued when he tried to take her gun.
According to Chauncey’s arrest report, deputies arrived on the scene at about 1:15 p.m. to find Chauncey’s mother (whose identity was redacted on the report but whose relationship to Chauncey was mentioned at the Town Council meeting) with multiple bruises on her neck and face. She told the officers Chauncey had battered and choked her to the point of unconsciousness before barricading himself in a bathroom with a knife.
After several attempts by deputies to convince him to give himself up, the arrest report stated that he stepped out of the room “with a large silver kitchen knife at his neck, threatening to kill himself.”
When he refused to drop the knife after being commanded to do so, deputies deployed a Taser and a “40 Millimeter” that launches less-lethal impact projectiles to bring him under their control.
A witness subsequently told officers they observed Chauncey on top of his mother choking her and later charging her with the large knife.
Chauncey was transported to JFK Hospital for treatment after being arrested.
Chauncey, who has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge, has an extensive felony record.
Palm Beach County court records over the past 10 years show — among other items — he was adjudicated guilty twice of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; of fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer; of possessions of cocaine, heroin and other controlled substances; and of leaving the scene of a crash with damage.
Larry Barszewski contributed to this story.
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