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York man accused of strangling his brother during Valentine’s Day fight over flowers

YORK — A 28-year-old York man has been charged with strangulation and other offenses after police say he attacked his brother during a Valentine’s D...
stough

YORK — A 28-year-old York man has been charged with strangulation and other offenses after police say he attacked his brother during a Valentine’s Day dispute over flowers.

David Harley Stough, 28, of the 400 block of Waldorf Drive, was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and harassment in the incident, which occurred around 12:04 p.m. at Stough’s home.

Northern York Regional Police were dispatched to the residence after the victim, Mason Mansberger, contacted police to report a domestic dispute. He told police that Stough, his brother, held him to the ground and choked him during a physical confrontation.

Stough told police that the altercation began when he arrived home to find that the decorative flowers he had hanging in his residence were lying in the middle of the yard. This made Stough very upset, he told police, and he went into the home to talk to Mansberger about it.

According to accounts provided to police by both men, Mansberger was in his bedroom on the phone when Stough kicked the door in and began arguing about the flowers. Stough told police he became irate and began yelling at Mansberger, who allegedly approached him and “belly-busted” him, meaning he thrust his stomach into Stough’s stomach in a pushing motion.

At that point, Stough said, he became even angrier, and ripped Mansberger’s door off its hinges. The two men continued trading pushes until Stough grabbed Mansberger, pushed him to the floor, and began choking him by pressing his forearm to Mansberger’s throat.

Mansberger, Stough told police, “deserved what he got, and deserved to have his (butt) kicked.”

Police say Mansberger admitted to throwing the flowers into the yard, but said he did it because Stough took down the deer antlers Mansberger had hanging on his wall. Mansberger said it was Stough who first initiated physical contact by “belly busting” him, and that he only did it in retaliation.

Mansberger told police that he could not breathe while Stough was choking him, and that his throat was still sore afterward.

Stough, Mansberger told police, “has anger issues,” exacerbated by the fact that Stough had not smoked marijuana in a while.

Police then spoke to Stough again, and he allegedly admitted to using marijuana to help calm himself, but told police he did not have any kind of medical marijuana card. Police say he showed police a glass pipe with what police say was burnt marijuana residue.

Stough was taken into custody, police say. He maintained that it was his brother who started the altercation as he was transported to Central Booking, according to police.

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