UPDATED: Tuesday, 6 p.m.

A 25-year-old Lowell man allegedly mocked his girlfriend as he choked her to the brink of unconsciousness Sunday morning in a Tewksbury motel.

Hector Rivera was arraigned Monday in Lowell District Court on charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault and battery.

According to a press release issued by Police Chief Timothy Sheehan, officers responded to the Motel Caswell after receiving a 911 call from a desk clerk. The employee told the officers he had heard screaming and crying coming from Room 252.

When the officers entered the room, they found a female victim, "crying, shaking and, at first, unable to speak."

The officer's reported that the victim's eye was bruised and inflamed and there were red marks on her neck, consistent with having been choked.

The victim told the officers that her boyfriend, Hector Rivera, had hit her and choked her until she could no longer breathe. Later, during an interview in the hospital, she said the incident began with an argument, during which Rivera had slapped her face.

She told the officers that when she tried to escape the motel room, he punched her in the face. He then pushed her onto the bed, held her down and started to strangle her with his hands. She said Rivera yelled at her as he was choking her, "sucks you can't breathe, huh."

She told the officers she was sure Rivera was going to kill her and that Rivera only stopped when he heard the police officers knocking at the door.

According to Sheehan, Rivera slipped out a back window just before officers entered the room.

Rivera was the subject of a manhunt, which included a K9 unit and the Airwing helicopter and was eventually arrested after a Tewksbury resident, who had heard about the search, called police and reported seeing him near her house.