A 75-year-old Citra man was arrested Sunday after a battle between roommates over household chores and a slice of pizza turned violent.
Marion County sheriff’s deputies were called to a home on NE 77th Terrace Rd. shortly before 7 p.m., where a woman who was 10 weeks pregnant told them she had been in an altercation with 75-year-old Gary Phillip Bangstad over house-cleaning issues. The woman said that Bangstad had been complaining about her and her boyfriend for “not cleaning up after themselves,” a sheriff’s office report states.
The woman told the deputies that Bangstad’s complaints have been an ongoing issue and he’s resorted to “calling her inappropriate names and treating her poorly,” the report says.
On Sunday, the woman said, her boyfriend brought home pizza for all three of them and she asked everyone to “help clean up” before eating it. The woman said Bangstad refused and took his pizza to his room to eat. She said she tried to talk to him about the issue but a verbal altercation broke out in the hallway next to his room and Bangstad “became angry and punched her in the chin,” the report says, adding that he then left the residence and went to a neighbor’s home “to calm down.”
Deputies made contact with the woman’s boyfriend over the phone and he confirmed that Bangstad had taken a piece of pizza to his room and then a verbal altercation broke out. The boyfriend added that Bangstad either “threw or dropped the slice of pizza” and then “popped” the woman in the chin, the report says.
Bangstad said he was upset because the woman and her boyfriend “do not clean up after themselves.” He said the woman was “yelling at him to clean up before eating” and he picked a few DVD cases before the boyfriend told him not sorry about it “due to his age,” the report says.
Bangstad said the woman then became “verbally argumentative” with him, tried to take away his slice of pizza and “poked him in the eye.” He said he “stuck his arm out and made a fist” to prevent her from getting any closer but she “ran into his fist” with her chin and then “yelled about being punched,” the report says, adding that Bangstad admitted to knowing the woman was pregnant.
Deputies, who noted seeing red marks on the woman’s chin, then took Bangstad into custody and transported him to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with aggravated battery on a pregnant victim. He was being held on $5,000 bond and is due to appear in court on Dec. 26 at 9 a.m. to answer to the charge.
Bangstad is no stranger to the Marion County legal system, having been housed in the jail four times since October 2017, when he was found guilty on a domestic violence charge. Since that time he’s been arrested for failing to appear in court (Nov. 29. 2017) and a probation violation (Aug. 28) on the charge.