A Father’s Day child custody exchange turned violent Sunday evening when a man was allegedly strangled by his ex-wife’s boyfriend at the Okahumpka Service Plaza.
Pedro Antonio Mercado-Angeles, 28, of Ocala, was arrested by the Wildwood Police Department on a felony charge of battery by strangulation following the Sunday, June 21, altercation.
Officers responded to the travel plaza on Florida’s Turnpike at about 7 p.m. The child’s father told police he was there to exchange custody of his child with his ex-wife. Upon arriving, he saw her parked in a gray Ford F-350 pickup truck with her boyfriend, Mercado-Angeles, in the driver’s seat.
The child’s father told police he motioned for Mercado-Angeles to roll down the window to discuss matters involving the ongoing child custody dispute. Mercado-Angeles exited the truck, and the two men engaged in a heated verbal argument while the ex-wife retrieved the child from the father’s vehicle…