Madison police arrested a 42-year-old man at gunpoint Thursday following a “very violent, rolling domestic battery” where authorities say he punched and strangled a Madison woman inside a car.
According to a police incident report, the man repeatedly beat his girlfriend inside the car while parked on East Washington Avenue. He drove to Cherokee Marsh, about eight miles north of Madison, “where [the victim] feared she would be killed.”
Police said a family hiking in the area saw the man beating the woman and grew concerned after she got out of the car and asked the family for a ride home.
Before the family could respond, the suspect drove into their vehicle, “side-swiping it while demanding the victim get back in the car,” Madison Police Department spokesperson Joel DeSpain said in a statement.
After the woman and suspect drove away, the family followed them back to Madison and alerted the police because they were worried for the woman’s safety, according to DeSpain.
Police caught and arrested the man at gunpoint in a private East Dayton Street driveway, according to police.
The victim told police her boyfriend became angry after she refused to give him the money he claimed she owed him. She was not seriously injured.
