AUSTINTOWN — A man has been arrested after two bikers said he antagonized and nearly hit them on Mahoning Avenue.

An Austintown police report states that the two men were riding their motorcycles west on Mahoning on the afternoon of Aug. 15, when they saw Joseph King, 65, of North Navarre Avenue, pass them as he was heading eastbound.

The men told police the King made a U-turn in traffic and began following them. They said that at Raccoon Road he began following them closely and when they reached the Route 11 ramps, King was so close that he had to slam on his brakes to avoid hitting them.

The report states the men told police that they pulled into the curb lane near Get-Go to get away from King, but he swerved into their lane, trying to run them off the road.

The report states the men showed police video that was taken by witnesses traveling in a car behind them, which shows King’s black Honda cut into the curb lane, forcing one of the men to quickly swerve his bike to the right to avoid being hit.

The men then told police that when they reached state Route 46, King was in front of them in the curb lane and put his car in reverse and backed up to try to hit them. One man said he put his bike in neutral and “braced for impact,” but King missed, then moved his car and tried at least twice more to back up and hit them before driving off into traffic, cutting off other drivers and nearly causing an accident.

The report states the men provided police with the names and contact information for the witnesses who took the video and police were able to reach them and verify the men’s statements.

On Wednesday, just after 3 p.m., police arrested King at his home, and charged him with two counts of felonious assault, a second-degree felony.

The report does not indicate that the men gave police any idea of why King targeted them.

King has a history of similar behavior.

In 2007, he was charged in Austintown with felonious assault and the case was bound over to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, where he later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated assault, a fourth-degree felony, and was sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to have no contact with the victim. A charge of menacing was dropped.

He also pleaded guilty to OVI in 2002 and received three days in jail, a driver intervention program and one year of probation.

Online court records do not yet show when King is due in court or what bond may be imposed by Mahoning County Austintown Judge Scott Hunter.