A man who previously lived in Mineral County and had moved in with two female relatives in Berkeley Springs has been charged with felony strangulation and violent crimes against the elderly.
Dylan S. McCusker, 24, known to have an Elk Garden address, was arrested on Monday, September 11 by a Morgan County Sheriff’s deputy on an arrest warrant secured earlier in the day.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Morgan County Circuit Court by Chief Deputy Johnnie Walter, police received a report at the Sheriff’s Department on Monday morning about an assault that had happened the previous Thursday, September 7.
Chief Walter reported that two women said McCusker had become angry with the grandmother of the family, grabbed her around the neck with both hands, with his thumbs on her windpipe, and shook her.
The women said when McCusker released the 84-year-old woman, he then hit her with a closed fist on both sides of her head and threatened to kill her the next time.
According to the police report, bruises on the victim’s face were still visible four days after the incident.
The younger of the two women said she witnessed the incident but didn’t intervene because McCusker had hit her before and she figured he would do it again. The family member said she was afraid for her life, which was why they came to police to make the report before McCusker returned to Berkeley Springs from another state.
Deputy Bradley Knotts arrested McCusker later that day.
McCusker is being held in the Eastern Regional Jail on a $75,000 cash only bond while he awaits a hearing in the case.
