Crime & Safety

Man Gets Shovel to the Face After Attacking Boy's Mom

Dennis Sullivan is in jail on multiple charges.

Originally written and reported by Alex Tiegen April 20, 2011

Dennis Sullivan argued with his live-in girlfriend and then physically attacked her in a home in the 5000 block of Mosaic Drive in Holiday on Sunday, according to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.

The girlfriend told her 10-year-old son to leave the house after the attack started. The boy went to get his bike. Then he got a shovel from the garage. He later told deputies that he wanted to scare Sullivan, 46, to stop him from hitting his mother.

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Sullivan came out of the house and swore and screamed at the boy and made fun of his father, who had recently passed way.

Sullivan ran at the 10-year-old. The boy swung the shovel and hit Sullivan in the right side of the face. He then dropped the shovel, ran into the street and went to his grandfather’s house next door.

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Sullivan was arrested at the home, where he had lived with his girlfriend, who takes care of his mother, for about two years.

Sullivan pushed, hit and head-butted the woman during the fight, according to deputies. The boy later told a sheriff’s deputy that his mother and Sullivan had been arguing all day, that Sullivan had hit and pushed her and that the boy had helped her rise from the ground. 

When deputies went into the house, they found blood on the floor and the master bedroom door, which had been broken off its hinges.

On the way to the hospital, Sullivan threatened murder of his girlfriend, her child and a deputy. Then he began trying to kick out the back window of the cruiser. After getting out of the car at the hospital, Sullivan spat on a deputy’s arm.

Sullivan was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, corruption by threat against a public servant, escape, simple domestic battery and simple domestic assault. He was booked in to the Land O' Lakes Jail on Monday with bail set at $27,000.



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