May 29, 2026 By Mike Jones 3 min read

A Canonsburg man is accused of beating his 87-year-old grandmother with a cane last weekend, causing injuries to her head.

Canonsburg police were investigating a hit-and-run crash in the 100 block of Hutchinson Avenue about 2:30 a.m. Sunday when they knocked on the door of a nearby residence and could see an elderly woman sitting in a chair bleeding.

Two men looked through the door at police, but shut the lights off and went upstairs, although the woman eventually got up from her chair and allowed officers to enter, according to court documents. The woman, who had a paper towel to control the bleeding and was holding a bag of frozen vegetables on her head, told officers she was afraid that her grandson, Anthony Miranda, was trying to kill her and another man who was in the house, police said.

Miranda’s husband, Jason Lopata, came down to speak to officers about the incident, and told police Miranda was “having a mental breakdown and had been drinking” that day, according to court documents. Officers tried to get Miranda to come downstairs, which he eventually did, and they took him into custody.

The woman told officers that Miranda was “intoxicated and upset” when he came home, and that he picked up the wooden cane next to her chair and began hitting her with it before Lopata intervened to stop the assault, investigators said.

“She said she was afraid she was going to die,” police wrote in the charging documents. “But then Jason stepped in and stopped Miranda from swinging the cane.”

The woman added that she thought both she and Lopata “were going to die tonight,” according to court documents.

Officers located the cane with a lizard-head on the handle, and also observed blood on the chair and all over the woman’s clothing. The woman suffered injuries to her head and fingers, both of which were bleeding from the assault, according to court documents. Medics at the scene said she would likely require stitches for the wound on her head, and was taken by ambulance to Canonsburg Hospital for treatment, police said.

Miranda, 37, was arrested and charged with felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor counts of simple assault and reckless endangerment. He was arraigned Sunday morning by District Judge John Bruner, who sent him to the Washington County jail on $200,000 cash bond. Miranda’s preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for June 1 at 11:30 a.m.