Nov. 04--NEW BRITAIN -- Jan Gawlik told police he was Satan after he used a sword and a meat cleaver to kill his father, a police report states.
The 46-year-old New Britain man faces charges of murder and third-degree assault on an elderly person. He is in custody on $1.5 million bail and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court Dec. 14.
According to a newly released report, a woman called 911 at 6:21 a.m. Oct. 14 when her neighbor, Anna Gawlik, came to her home and said her son, Jan, had stabbed her husband.
Police went into the Gawlik house at 127 Booth St. and found Jan Gawlik using a laptop computer on the couch in his first-floor apartment, the report states. He was sweaty, covered in blood and naked from the waist down. A long kitchen knife and a crack pipe were within reach, it states.
Sgt. Chet A. Giersz, who knows Gawlik, tried to get him to talk, but he only stared straight ahead and said, "I'm not saying anything," the report states. When Gawlik was handcuffed, he said, "Chet, I'm Satan ... release me."
Because of his remarks and because of officers' suspicions that he was under the influence of drugs, Jan Gawlik was transported to the Hospital of Central Connecticut at New Britain.
In Jozef Gawlik's second-floor apartment, police found the 90-year-old's body on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood, the report states. A Samurai-style sword with a bent blade was nearby, and a cleaver-type of knife was under his left hip.
Anna Gawlik told investigators that her son has struggled with a longtime drug problem.
That morning, she told them, she had returned from walking her dog and was trying to close her apartment door when she realized her son was on the other side, pushing back. He was barefoot, wearing only a T-shirt and boxers, she told police.
When her husband appeared in the kitchen, Jan Gawlik said "I got you now," the report states. He took an 18-inch-long knife he had been hiding behind his back and stabbed his father in the center of his chest, Anna Gawlik told police.
He then punched his father in the head, and after Jozef Gawlik fell to the floor from the punch, he took a meat-cutting knife from the kitchen drawer and stabbed him in the chest again, she told police.
Jan Gawlik also punched his mother, knocking out a tooth, the report states.
When the state police went to the hospital to interview Gawlik, he invoked his right to remain silent, the report states. The state police took over the case at the request of the New Britain state's attorney's office; Jozef Gawlik was the father-in-law of acting Capt. James Wardwell.
Jan Gawlik told the investigators to pass along to the prosecutor the following message, the report states:
"Bring this to the prosecutor, I have risen. I am Satan. I made a pact with the world, the world made a pact with me and broke their promise and I curse the world. The world knows who told me. I was told only take one. I want to stay mute for now."
Police arrested him as soon as he was released from the hospital.
Copyright 2011 - The Hartford Courant, Conn.
