A man was stabbed repeatedly during a fight between two acquaintances Friday night in the parking lot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Empire Street, according to the Cortez Police Department.
About 11 p.m. July 28, police responded to the scene at 1700 E. Empire St., where medics found Juston Farley with eight to nine stab wounds on his torso, according to a police report by Sgt. Rogelio Maynard.
Officer Jerry Sam stated in a police report that Bradley Hurford and his girlfriend, Carissa Williams, were returning property to Farley in the parking lot of the church when the men began fighting. Farley reportedly hit Hurford first, punching him multiple times. Hurford pulled out a knife and stabbed Farley, causing him to step away.
Hurford told Sam that he stabbed Farley in self-defense, and Sam noted that he saw “slight redness to the left side of (Hurford’s) face and some swelling.”
Williams told Maynard that she, Hurford, and Farley were meeting socially in Dolores when a disagreement occurred, and Williams asked Farley to exit her vehicle. They left him in Dolores, but because his property remained in the car, they made plans to return it to him at the church.
Police officer Kristin Cannon, who provided a supplemental narrative for the case, spoke with witnesses identified as Jakob Velasquez and McKenzy Peterson-Greer. Peterson-Greer said Farley was picked up in Dolores by a friend, and then met up with Velasquez and Peterson-Greer on Empire Street.
The witnesses described Farley as “out of control” and they were trying to calm him down to avoid an altercation when Hurford and Williams returned his property, Cannon reported.
Officers collected the knife, which Sam removed from Hurford’s pocket when he arrived on scene. The vehicle driven by Williams was towed to the Cortez Police Department to be processed.
No arrests were made, according to the police reports.
