Hubbard police stop attack on woman

Staff report

HUBBARD

Police went to check on a woman’s welfare only to discover her ex-boyfriend strangling her on her couch, a police report says.

The report also says the 54-year-old woman told them Amato Pasquale Zaccone Jr., 54, held her hostage in her Jacobs Road apartment for two days, from Sunday night until 9:38 p.m. Tuesday.

Zaccone was arraigned Wednesday morning in Girard Municipal Court. He did not post a $107,500 bond and remains in the Trumbull County Jail, charged with felonious assault and domestic violence.

Tuesday night, police began breaking in to the apartment through a window until Zaccone obeyed repeated orders from them to open the door.

When a police officer looked into the kitchen window, he saw the victim “try to kick out of being strangled by a man standing and bent over her ... a muffled noise could be heard then a garbled ‘help’ ...” according to the report.

As officers yelled for him to stop, Zaccone continued to choke the victim, the report says.

After he finally opened the door, he was ordered to the ground and handcuffed.

Police called an ambulance. The victim told them to look under a couch pillow, where they found a large butcher knife and poke marks from the knife on the back of the couch.

“He’s been hitting, punching me, and choking me out,” the victim told police.

She said it started Sunday night when she let him come over to the apartment. He had been in the hospital, the report indicates.

The report also indicates the two of them began fighting over Zaccone’s kicking her dog, his accusing her of seeing other men and her belief he was stealing alcoholic drinks.

“He dragged me outside by my arms ... dragged me back into the house and punched me,” she told police.

She said that Tuesday, more attacks started in the late afternoon. He dragged her downstairs and punched and choked her. He came after her with the knife when she laid in her bed and poked at her, the report says.

According to the report, the woman said Zaccone had her pinned down “with the dull side of the butcher’s knife pressed against my throat and he hurt me bad, I started to lose consciousness.”

She was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

Police Chief Jim Taafe said police are investigating to determine whether to charge Zaccone in connection with not letting the woman leave the apartment. He said officers saw the assault, so they filed those charges.

Zaccone is due back in court at 9 a.m. Wednesday for a preliminary hearing.