Gerald Ignatowski - Repeat Sex Offender - Violent Predator

A man accused of holding a woman hostage at a Guilford home was taken into police custody after engaging officers in a standoff Tuesday morning, police said.

Police said an officer on patrol was approached by a distraught woman in North Guilford at about 2:30 a.m. The woman told the officer she had been threatened and held against her will by Gerald Ignatowski, 57. The woman said Ignatowski had been drinking heavily, threatened suicide and had a handgun.

The woman said Ignatowski eventually passed out and she was able to escape.

Officers went to the home where the woman said she had been held hostage, which they said was in a heavily populated condo complex. Members of the Branford Police Department as well as SWAT Team members from the Regional Emergency Response Team were also called to the area.

When officers entered the home, they said Ignatowski was not inside. He was later found on a wooded, rocky hillside near the home armed with a .32-caliber pistol.

Police said Ignatowski refused to drop his gun, and made a sudden motion, causing one of the officers to shoot him with a sponge ball. Ignatowski dropped the pistol and was taken into police custody. He was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital for treatment of minor injuries and a psychological evaluation.

Guilford police said Ignatowski will be charged with unlawful restraint, reckless endangerment, criminal attempt to commit aggravated sexual assault, criminal possession of a pistol, disorderly conduct, breach of peace and threatening. When released from the hospital, police said Ignatowski's bond will be set at $100,000.

Police said Ignatowski is a convicted felon and registered sex offender.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte

"On average most sex offenders are never caught again for a new sex offense, after five years, between 10 and 15 percent of sex offenders are detected, often convicted, of committing a new sex offense. If you follow them for ten years the rates go up somewhat, if you follow them as long as we’ve been able to follow them, which is about 20 years, the rates go up to somewhere between 30 to 40 percent of the total sample will eventually be caught for a new sex offense."

Dr. R. Karl Hansen