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NANTICOKE — A man faces numerous charges after he allegedly strangled his ex-girlfriend, wrapped a PlayStation cable around her neck, threatened to kill her and later fled from police.

City police Officers Kara Kroll and Joseph Kosch were dispatched to a residence on Loomis Street at 12:27 p.m. Wednesday for a report of a woman who couldn’t breathe after being strangled, police said.

When the officers arrived, they saw that the victim was having a hard time catching her breath. The woman told them her ex, who was identified as Joseph Noss, 36, had “jumped on top of her for no reason and put both hands around her neck to the point where she could not get any oxygen,” police said.

Police said the woman told officers that Noss held her throat for about 10 seconds, then let go, grabbed a PlayStation controller wire from a game system, walked up to her and wrapped the wire around her neck, stating that he was going to kill her.

She added that her 4-year-old son was present for the altercation and that Noss grabbed the toddler by his hair and pulled him out of his way, police said.

Officers Amos Vanderhoff and Kosch proceeded to the victim’s residence where the incident had occurred. They identified themselves to Noss and, when they approached him, Noss ran away, leading into a foot pursuit through his yard, a neighbor’s property, down Loomis street and through a brush-filled area leading to a drop-off point before the C.P. Railroad track bed, police said.

Both officers gave verbal commands to stop several times, but Noss allegedly failed to comply and continued running.

The officers tried to apprehend Noss on the railroad tracks on the side of Loomis Street, but he resisted and they used pepper spray to subdue him.

Noss was charged with two counts each of aggravated assault, simple assault and harassment, and one count of resisting arrest. He was arraigned before District Judge Donald Whittaker and, unable to post 10 percent of his $50,000 bail, was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility to await a preliminary hearing.

Noss, of Loomis Street, was charged by Nanticoke police in May with two counts of simple assault and harassment after he allegedly burned the face of his then girlfriend, Tracy Ann Butka, with a lit cigarette and slapped her on May 18, according to a previous complaint.

Butka had claimed Noss prevented her from calling 911 and leaving their residence, the complaint says.

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By Steve Mocarsky

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Reach Steve Mocarsky at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @TLSteveMocarsky.