A man who reportedly tried to help an intoxicated woman was attacked in the area of 650 E. Second St.
About 10:24 p.m. Wednesday, Cortez Police officer Brady Veach responded to 650 E. Second St. after reports of an active fight from dispatch.
After arriving, Veach spoke with Gustavo Diaz, the victim and one of the callers. Diaz told Veach that when he arrived at his apartment complex that evening, he saw a red vehicle had “double-parked” in his assigned parking spot. After parking his truck, he approached the driver, a woman later identified as Tiffany Shorty.
Shorty reportedly asked Diaz not to call the police, telling him she was “drunk and didn’t want to get in trouble.”
At the request of Diaz, Shorty allowed Diaz to call someone from her phone to come help her. Shorty called a male, and Diaz explained that Shorty was intoxicated and was parked in his parking spot, but the male hung up the call.
Diaz then called Shorty’s sister for help, but the man he first called, Raynor Cooke, a resident at the apartment building, arrived and approached Diaz.
“Raynor asked Gustavo why he had her phone and why he was with her,” Veach said. “Gustavo told me that he had been backing up and was standing behind a nearby vehicle when Raynor swung at him in an attempt to hit him.”
Diaz dropped to his knee in an attempt to avoid being hit, but Cooke put him in a headlock. After Diaz got out of the headlock, the two fought.
Diaz was able to “punch Raynor in the face a few times” to get away from him, according to the report. While he was calling police, he said Cooke continued to follow him “in an aggressive manner.”
Some occupants of nearby apartments watched. One resident spoke with Veach and showed him three videos she had on her phone that corroborated Diaz’s account.
During the fight, Shorty had moved her vehicle from Diaz’s parking spot to a visitor spot.
According to Veach, Cook claimed that Diaz attacked him and he tried to get away.
However, Veach said Cooke’s account did not match the witness video recordings, and officer Trevor Robertson reported that red marks on Diaz’s neck matched his report that Cooke had put him in a headlock.
Veach also reported that Cooke said he had been drinking. Veach arrested him on suspicion of violating a court order that barred him from “possessing or consuming alcohol,” and took him to Southwest Memorial Hospital, where he was examined “due to his injuries and level of intoxication.”
Once at the Montezuma County Detention Center, he was cited with violation of the protection order and harassment.
