The case of a 20-year-old Florida man shot in the head by a Florida sergeant actually started with a missing person’s call from the victim’s mother.
According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office’s (PBSO) arrest report, the mother called Lantana police just after 1 a.m. Saturday to report her daughter as a missing person. She said, “Her daughter is a mental health therapist and that she has not been heard from since her last appointment.” Her daughter was expected for dinner the night before, and not being able to reach her daughter “is completely unlike” her. The woman also said her daughter’s “cell phone appears to be off. She feels that [her daughter] may have been kidnapped.”
No one could prove her right for another nine hours.
A Lantana officer went to the mother’s home and said “she received a strange text from [her daughter] and the message that she was pulled over by the police and that she was being taken to have a breath test done. At around 12:30 a.m., she received another strange message from [her daughter] that she was being taken to a hotel by the police for the night.”
Lantana police said none of that was true; the daughter had not been detained or arrested.
Her mother said she had tattoos on her left chest of a sun and compass, and an up and down arrow on her right wrist. She described her daughter’s car and the clothes she was wearing, “gray Nike shoes with a yellow swish.”
At approximately 4 a.m., Lantana police asked PBSO to respond to a home on Larkspur Trail, west of Boca Raton, to see if she was there.
PBSO deputies looking for the missing person got to the home at 4:19 a.m. and found the victim’s boss waiting for them. “He told deputies that he received a text from [the victim] around 6:30 p.m. that she was meeting her client (Tzvi Allswang) inside his residence. When he arrived at the residence, he saw that [the victim’s] car was in the driveway. Deputies made several attempts to knock on the door to make contact with someone. There was no response, and they could not hear anything coming from the interior of the home. They did notice that the glass on the front door was covered, but they could not tell by what. They attempted to call the homeowner and were unable to make contact with him. Deputies left the residents at 5:33 a.m.”
But the victim’s mother was persistent.
“At 6:47 a.m., PBSO received the call from [the mother] and she was again requesting that a deputy respond to the residence [on] Larkspur Trail and this time she was there. She told dispatchers that [her daughter’s] car is parked in the driveway and she believes [her daughter] is inside the home. Deputies responded to the residence and met with [the mother]. At 7:32 a.m., deputies again attempt to make contact with anyone inside and again no contact was made. Deputies were on the west side of the house, on the patio, when the deputies knocked on a window and heard a woman scream from inside the residence.
“As this was occurring, [the victim’s] cell phone was being pinged to determine a location it was showing Broward County. Based on this information, they requested the Broward Sheriff’s Office to locate the phone at the GPS coordinates provided by the cellphone carrier. BSO was unable to locate anything. Hospitals and law enforcement agencies were once again contacted to determine if [the victim] was with them and she was not. The residence was checked again to see if any of the windows and doors appeared to be unlocked and they were all secured.
“Additional units and assets were requested to the residence and once the appropriate personnel were on scene, the front door was breached at 9:35 a.m. Entry was made into the residence at 9:39 a.m. and was systematically checked for people and when they reached the master bedroom door, it was also locked. This door was breached at 9:45 a.m. and at 9:46 a.m. they located Tzvi holding [the victim] hostage by a knife to her throat inside the master closet. At 9:47 a.m., Sgt. William Norgueras shot Tzvi once in the head and EMS was immediately requested to enter the home and treat Tzvi for his injury. Tzvi was transported to [the hospital] and was taken immediately into surgery. He is expected to survive his injury.”
Sgt. Nogueras went on paid administrative leave, which is standard after shootings. He has been with PBSO for 14 years and is assigned to the K-9 Unit.
The violence was over and at about 10:30 a.m., detectives with the PBSO Violent Crimes Division arrived to investigate exactly what happened.
According to the arrest report, the mother said the victim was going “to see a client. [The victim] was supposed to be home around 6:30 p.m. for dinner that was previously planned. At around 7:30 p.m., [the mother] texted [the victim] like to find out where she was and the message indicated that [the victim’s] phone was off. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to make contact, she received a text from [the victim’s] phone that said she was being taken to the police station at 7:13 p.m. She was able to send three more messages that were not responded to and then the phone appeared to be turned back off. [The mother] received a text again from the phone at 12:28 a.m. and the message read that the police were going to get her a hotel room and that she was going to stay the night there and would talk to her tomorrow. [The mother] said that the wording of the text messages did not sound or reflect how [her daughter] communicates with her. Throughout the night, she attempted to make contact with [the victim’s] boss [name] and she finally spoke with him around 3 a.m. when he provided the address for Tzvi. Upon receiving the information, she called LPD back and gave the address to them. She then drove to the address around 5 a.m. She began knocking on the door and walking around the house to see if [her daughter] was inside and she saw nothing. When the deputies arrived back at the residence and were searching on the west side of the house, [the mother] also heard the scream from inside the house.”
A canine deputy told investigators, “When they reached the locked master bedroom, he went outside and was trying to gain entry through the master bedroom window. As he was finally able to see inside, he saw that the other deputies were able to gain access into the room from the master bedroom door. Soon after, he heard them say that there was a hostage situation. He went back into the residence and several deputies were focusing their attention to the walk-in closet. They were giving multiple commands to drop the knife and he saw a knife being held to [the victim’s] throat by Tzvi. Tzvi was standing behind [the victim] and Tzvi was holding a knife in his right hand to [the victim’s] throat. Tzvi did not respond or comply with the commands being given by the deputies. That’s when Sgt. Nogueras fired once for his department-issued handgun, shootings Tzvi above the left eye on his forehead. [This deputy] grabbed a towel that was on the floor and began to apply pressure to the wound until medics arrived to take over treatment. Once she was freed, [the victim] uttered she was beaten and sexually assaulted by Tzvi. Numerous other deputies were interviewed, and they provided the same consistent information.”
Then, it was time to find out from the victim what really went on inside that house during her 15 hours of terror.
The detective went to a different hospital than the one Allswang was brought to.
WARNING: The following paragraphs contain exceptionally graphic content that may be unsuitable to some readers. Discretion is advised.
According to the arrest report, “[The victim] began by saying that she is a therapist, and she is currently working as a social worker. She has seen Tzvi 4 or 5 times previously to yesterday’s appointment. [The victim] said that she was originally scheduled to meet with him on Monday, June 27th, but he canceled, and she attempted to reschedule several times throughout the week, but he was unresponsive. They finally agreed to meet on Friday, July 1, at 5:30 p.m. [The victim] said that he pushed the meeting back to around 6:30 p.m. [The victim] said that she has met with Tzvi at the house before and when they met, they usually go to the den and other people are usually present. [The victim] said that she saw other vehicles in the driveway and assumed that someone else was inside the residence. She said that it is not uncommon, not just to see other family members during the meetings.
“[The victim] said that Tzvi is being seen by therapists and [believed to be other professionals] and her responsibilities are to help him function in society such as: getting a job, building a resume, how to behave during a job interview, etc. People that work with Tzvi warned her that Tzvi had a sexual battery charge as a juvenile. She said that the meeting went on as usual, except that she now realized that he had left the meeting a couple times for reasons such as using the restroom and getting a drink, which now makes her think that he was covering windows in the home.
“As the meeting was ending, Tzvi was attempting to get her to stay longer and asking personal questions about her. She began to feel uncomfortable and eventually he got into her personal space. This really caused concern for her and then she attempted to leave the residence. As she was walking towards the front door, she saw that the window of the door was now covered with a black material. She knew this must have happened during one of the times Tzvi left the den during the meeting because she would have seen the window covered when she first arrived at the home. She later realized that all the window blinds were closed or covered up, which is completely unnatural from her other meetings at the home.
“As she was flailing around to get loose, her Coach purse came off her arm and dropped on the floor. He eventually was able to take her phone from her hand. He later placed her phone in airplane mode and wrapped her phone in aluminum foil and duct tape to prevent communication. Tzvi also did the same thing with his cell phone. Zee is approximately 6’2” and 200 lbs versus [The victim] being 5’5” and 135 lbs. He is much larger, stronger and heavier than her. Tzvi eventually bound her hands together, as if she was praying, behind her back with duct tape. She said that he used a lot of tape on her. [The victim] went on to say that he eventually dragged her over to the couch in the living room.
“During the course of the night, she pleaded numerous times for him to let her go and he said that he was not going to let her go. Tzvi beat her multiple times by hitting her in multiple places on her body and face with his hands and knees. [The victim] had visible bruising, abrasions and cuts on her arms, wrists, face and neck.
“While being held captive, he became aroused and was fondling her over her clothes, touching her [various body parts]. During the course of her captivity, Tzvi escalated the unwanted touching, escalated to raping her multiple times throughout the entire 15 hours he kept her hostage. He would forcibly on numerous occasions and she would beg him to stop, that he was hurting her and just to let her leave. …
“During the night, his behavior would change from being calm, becoming angry and sexually aroused. Tzvi would at time strangle her from behind by placing his arm around her throat and placing her into a chokehold or by grabbing her with his right hand around her throat from the front. She said that this occurred about four or five times. Tzvi would also kiss her neck, legs, feet and chest. He also bit the nipple of the left breast. [The victim] said that he used a condom sometimes.
“[The victim] attempted several times to reason with him and she was able to convince him to cut the duct tape from her hands. [The victim] knew that she had to adjust to his behavioral changes in order to have any chance of survival as she thought on several occasions he was going to kill her. Tzvi threatened to kill her on several occasions throughout the night. It should be noted that we have had to take several breaks during the interview because [the victim] was crying, traumatized and having difficulty speaking.
“[The victim] confirmed that she heard the deputies around 4 a.m. knocking. I asked her how she knew what time it was and she said that in the master bedroom there is a clock that she could see. She said that he would drag her around the house, on one occasion by the hair, to different rooms in the home to either beat or rape her by [graphic]. On a couple of occasions, when he was able to convince him not to rape her, he would [graphic] in her hair or on her body, or he would force her
“I asked [the victim] if she was able to scratch Tzvi and she said yes on his back.
“She told me when they began knocking this time, he dragged her into the master closet, closed the door and placed a step stool in front of the door in an attempt to prevent the door from being opened. As they were sitting there in the dark, she could hear what sounded to be a saw and banging at the front door. She recalled Tzvi telling her he was so excited by the action and that he wanted to ‘f___ her.’
“[The victim] said that Tzvi even asked her to put one of his mother’s favorite dresses up on her, as if he wanted to imagine [The victim] in it. During the night, he was carrying around something wrapped in a towel and she thought it was a gun. She later found out that it was a large kitchen knife with a black handle that was placed to her throat. As the police got closer to the bedroom, Tzvi he told her to be quiet or he would cut her throat. She even recalled [him] trying to use the metal hook of the hanger to place in between her throat, so the knife would cut her; however, Tzvi realized what she was doing and lowered the dress slightly with his left hand to prevent that from happening.
“As the police forced open the bedroom door, she could hear them getting closer to the closet and heard one of them say something to the effect of, I have something over here. Soon after, the closet door came flying open and she could see several deputies with lights on, partially blinding her. She heard them give Tzvi several commands to drop the knife and let her go. She said that Tzvi did not respond or comply with their orders and eventually she heard one loud gunshot and then the knife was no longer to her throat. [The victim] ran out of the closet and did not look back.”
“During [the victim’s] physical examination and sexual battery evaluation, they documented that her eyes were swollen. There are marks, bruises and swelling to the throat. During the examination, it was documented in a strangulation report [the victim] told the nurse she was choked, smothered by covering her mouth with his hands, and her head had been pounded against the floor.
“During the attacks, she would become dizzy and had visual changes, and had headaches, and became uncertain of her location. [The victim] indicated that she had pain in her neck, throat and face from being hit. Due to being repeatedly hit or kneed in the stomach, she was experiencing abdominal pain and nausea. They also saw and documented the bite wound to her left nipple. There was noticeable tenderness to the [body part] and a moist secretion in the area.”
A judge approved a search warrant so detectives could remove evidence. The arrest report said, “That included but were not limited to the fired casing, projectile, large knife, photos, and swabs of bloodlike substance.
“During the warrant, the following items were recovered or observed.
- 1) Black plastic on the interior of the front door glass and side windows that was attached with several pieces of duct tape.
- 2) More duct tape pieces on a small table in the foyer and a piece of duct tape stuck to an interior wall in the foyer.
- 3) Plastic packaging on the tile floor in the foyer that appeared to be from plastic tablecloths that were consistent with the black plastic taped to the door/window.
- 4) Blue painter-style tape pieces attached to the outside of the first interior door to the left after entering the front door.
- 5) Multiple pieces of duct tape attached to the bed post/frame, a roll of duct tape on the bed, a large amount of duct tape that appeared to be a wrist binding on a desk, open condom packaging, a condom, a condom out of the packaging, and tape on the lower cabinet in the adjoining bedroom.
- 6) [The victim’s] purse.
- 7) A deep muscle massager.
- 8) A single shell casing near the entrance of the closet.
- 9) A large knife located within the closet.
- 10) A projectile on the carpet inside the closet.
- 11) [The victim’s] cell phone that was wrapped in aluminum foil was located in a kitchen drawer in the island.
- 12) A second phone wrapped in foil was located in the closet where the shooting occurred. (possibly Allswang’s)
- 13) The dimensions of the closet area where the shooting took place. The interior closet was 13 feet from east to west, 6 feet 3 inches from north to south, and was 9 feet 6 inches from the carpet floor to ceiling. The area the casing was previously located was about 2 feet from the opening of the closet door into the hallway.
- 14) A Party City shopping bag was located on the dining table in the room on the west side of the kitchen that contained more black plastic tablecloths like the ones that were taped to the door/windows. The receipt was located in the bag. The items were purchased on June 29, 2022, at about 7:44 p.m. at the party City located [on Powerline Road in] Boca Raton.
- 15) [The victim’s] Nike shoes with the yellow swish on them.
“The evidence at the scene suggests that this was a premeditated attack on [the victim] by purchasing the black tablecloths on June 29th and then covering the windows with them prior to [the victim’s] arrival. The fact that he was not away from [the victim] for an extended period of time during the occasions he left during the 40-45 minute meeting, it is presumed that Tzvi covered the front door windows.
“[Tzvi’s father] later told detectives that he and his wife were in New York since the middle of the previous week and that Tzvi’s brother was away at a camp, thus leaving Tzvi alone at the residence, which also permitted him to prep the house for the attack.”
The ordeal ended on Saturday, July 2.
Tzvi Allswang survived. He left the hospital and was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Wednesday afternoon. He is charged with attempted first-degree murder, kidnapping, and four counts of sexual assault with a weapon. And he is being held without bond.
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