Crime & Safety

Attack on Woman Lasted Hours, Police Say

Kraig Constantino beat, choked and held a woman at gunpoint, police say.

New Port Richey police dispatchers said that on Aug. 29 they heard a woman plead several times “Please don’t kill me” over the phone. 

So police officers went to the apartment complex on Main Street that where the plea came from, and an officer heard a scream from the east end of the building, according to an arrest report from the New Port Richey Police Department.

An officer made his way to apartment 201 when he heard a radio. He pressed his ear to the door and heard the woman plead “please don’t kill me.” 

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Two of the other officers on scene announced their presence to the occupants. An officer went to his patrol car to get a tool and then came back to break the front door lock and force the door open.

The three entered the apartment, and one noted it was in extreme disarray. Furniture was piled in front of the front in a barricade attempt. 

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In the bedroom, the officers found a woman with apparent injuries on her hands and face. Also there was Kraig Constantino, standing over her in an intimidating manner, according to the report.  Constantino, 43,  was ordered to put his hands in the air and get on the ground.

Constantino told officers he was on their side but didn’t comply with orders, the report says. An officer grabbed him by the left arm and put him in handcuffs. 

Officers also found a gun in his apartment.

Once Constantino was secured,  the woman, who is his girlfriend, told police that the incident started hours earlier, around 2 p.m. She said she had been standing next to a black man she knew who was delivering a package at her workplace and showing him pictures on her phone when Constantino saw them and spouted a racial slur , yelling that she was “standing too close” to the man.

She told police Constantino started calling and texting her. When she answered, Constantino told her he would burn her house down, she told police. When she returned home, she found her place in disarray.  She found belongings burned or destroyed.  She also noted her handgun was missing. 

After returning to work, she went to Constantino’s apartment and knocked on the door of apartment 201. Constantino spewed obscenities and her to leave him alone

She told him she wanted her gun back and he openbed the door and pulled her into the apartment,. He began punching her again and again in the head.  He grabbed her throat and squeezed until she blacked out, according to the report.

When she came to, he put her in a headlock and told her he was going to break her neck and kill her.  She was able to get free and escape the apartment but Constantino caught up with her and dragged her back into the apartment, according to the report. 

He waved the handgun he took h and put it to her head, saying “I’m going to kill you.” He also placed it against her stomach and threatened her. Then he pistol whipped her repeatedly.  Constantino told her he would shoot officers as soon as they walked through the door.

She was eventually able to call 9-1-1 three times using her cell phone, and left the line open on one so dispatchers would hear the pleas that brought officers to the scene.

Constantino is a felon whose list of crimes includes multiple offensives over the past 20 years, according to the Tampa Bay Times

On Aug. 29. he was arrested again and charged with a plethora of offenses, including kidnapping, attempted murder, and aggravated battery.



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