NJ man’s rage over parked landscaping truck ends with strangulation charge

🚔 A Mahwah man is accused of trying to strangle a 78-year-old landscaper and assaulting his wife
🚌 Investigators say the elderly couple had stopped only because a school bus had its lights activated before the confrontation turned violent
⚖️ The suspect later surrendered to police and was jailed on charges including aggravated assault by strangulation.

MAHWAH — A Bergen County man has been arrested and charged with trying to strangle an elderly landscaper and assaulting his wife after he got angry that they stopped their work truck in front of his house. Both victims survived.

Mahwah road rage dispute erupts into violent assault

On Thursday, June 25, police responded to Glasgow Terrace just before 9 a.m. for a reported dispute in progress, according to Police Captain Michael Blondin, and reported by The Daily Voice. But by the time officers arrived, the suspect was gone.

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According to investigators, the 78-year-old man and his 68-year-old wife were driving a landscaping vehicle when they stopped for an approaching school bus with its lights activated.

While they were stopped, the suspect, later identified as Aston Hamilton, 45, of Mahwah, approached the car and yelled at the couple for stopping in front of his home.

When the bus left, the couple went to their job site. But things did not end there.

Elderly landscaper charged with attack after school bus stop

Hamilton later approached the woman in what police say was a threatening manner, Blondin said. When her husband intervened, Hamilton allegedly threw him to the ground, kicked him, then choked him with both hands.

The victim told police he couldn’t breathe, according to The Daily Voice.

When the woman tried to help her husband, the suspect struck her several times and threw her to the ground before taking off, Blondin said.

Mahwah man jailed on aggravated assault by strangulation charge

Hamilton was charged by warrant with aggravated assault by non-fatal strangulation and simple assault.

Hamilton surrendered to Mahwah Police Headquarters later that night. He was taken to the Bergen County Jail, pending a Superior Court hearing.

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