A homeless man was arrested in the savage beating of a woman at Brownwood Paddock Square in The Villages.
Multiple 911 calls were received at about 10 a.m. Monday when a man was spotted beating a woman near the Barnstorm Theater.
The man, identified as 33-year-old Robert James Costello, had been screaming at the woman before pushing her off the tailgate of a truck. She attempted to flee, but Costello chased her down and put her in a chokehold, according to an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department.
He dragged her back to the truck, shoved her in and began “unleashing a volley of full strength punches,” multiple witnesses told police. People in the vicinity began honking their horns to try to break up the vicious attack on the woman. Medical personnel said the woman suffered a possible broken shoulder and broken ribs.
Costello hid in a resident’s car. When he was captured, he said the woman makes him “mad” and he “just lost it,” the report said. The woman said she and Costello have been in a relationship for eight months and he beats her “daily.”
He was arrested on felony charges of aggravated battery and battery by strangulation. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on $33,000 bond.
