Officers with Durango Police Department had a busy weekend with a beating, a stabbing and a gunshot victim.
By Monday, they had determined that it was unlikely the stabbing and beating were related, a possibility originally examined.
“After interviewing the victim from the stabbing on the Animas River Trail, we pretty well believe the two incidents weren’t related to each other,” Detective Trish Hutchens said. “The descriptions of the suspects were too different.”
The beating took place early Friday morning and the stabbing early Saturday morning.
Bayfield resident Yulises Hernandez Ruiz was beaten near El Rancho Tavern, then taken in a dark-colored, extended-cab pickup to Walmart, where he was pushed out the passenger side into the parking lot.
Ruiz, 32, was taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center, where he was treated for nonlife-threatening injuries. He told officers the next day that three men had accosted him in the alley behind Moe’s Starlight Lounge and had tried to stab him, but he was protected by a heavy leather coat.
“He ran from the alley toward Main,” Lt. Ray Shupe said in a news release. “He was struck in the back of the head and knocked to the ground next to El Rancho Tavern, where he was repeatedly kicked by the two other men. He was knocked unconscious.”
When police responded to a report of an assault at El Rancho about 1:47 a.m. Friday, they found blood and a baseball hat that had been left behind.
Ruiz, whose wallet was stolen, had been released from Mercy Regional Medical Center by Monday afternoon.
Daniel Craig, 24, was found stabbed in the 2200 block of Main Avenue at about 2:55 a.m. Saturday. He had left Rank Park where the stabbing took place and told officers three assailants had attacked him and stolen his red-and-black bicycle.
Craig was stabbed nine times, including five wounds in the back, but he also had been released from Mercy by Monday afternoon.
The stabbing and the beating were apparently carried out by two groups of three men, but no suspects have been identified for either attack at this time.
People with information about the beating should call Detective Sgt. Deck Shaline at 375-4729. Contact Hutchens with information about the stabbing at 375-4733.
“We don’t think the community should be worried,” Hutchens said. “To the best of anyone’s recollection here, this is the first stabbing on the river trail.”
Also on Monday, an affidavit of probable cause was filed for Jeremy Dupree, 39, with the 6th Judicial Court regarding a shooting shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday. The affidavit said the Durango police had probable cause to arrest Dupree on attempted-murder and domestic-violence charges.
The shooting took place at Homewood Suites in Bodo Industrial Park, where officers found Robin Armstrong shot in the abdomen.
In the affidavit, Officer Bradley Roach said police and deputies from the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office learned that the room was rented to Dupree, who was seen leaving the hotel as the 911 call was being placed.
The victim told officers at the scene that she was shot by a handgun after the gun accidentally went off when Dupree slammed it onto the desk, according to the affidavit. A witness told officers the couple, who have been involved for about two years and live together, had been arguing before the gun went off, Roach said.
Dupree was picked up later in a parking lot in Bodo Park where he had parked his truck. He is being held without bond at the La Plata County jail.
On Monday afternoon, Armstrong continued to be in fair condition at Mercy Regional Medical Center, where she was taken after the shooting.
abutler@durangoherald.com
This story has been corrected since it originally published. Police found a bloody baseball hat where Yulises Hernandez Ruiz was assaulted.
