Tuesday, February 15, 2011

1 hospitalized after Greeley fight; police try to sort out stories

(February 14, 2011, Greeley, CO, USA)--One man went to jail, the other to the hospital Sunday after a fight in which the men said they didn’t like each other because one is Somali and the other is Ethiopian.

The fight occurred shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday in the 700 block of 15th Street, according to Greeley police. When officers arrived, the man who would be arrested, Shakur Arayse, 32, “jogged” away from officers. When he was stopped about a half-block away, the officer saw Arayse was bleeding from the nose.

Arayse said he was attacked by a man he knew from work, who hit him in the nose with a 30-pound dumbbell weight; he said he then stabbed the man in the arm. According to an arrest affidavit, Arayse told officers they did not get along because Arayse is an Ethiopian and Ahmed Egal is Somali. But when police went to the home of Egal, 31, he and witnesses told them a different story.

Witnesses told police Arayse knocked on the door of Egal’s apartment, then hit him in the face when he opened the door. Arayse then allegedly went to the parking lot and shouted to Egal to come out and fight or he would break the windows in his car. He was allegedly throwing rocks at Egal’s car when Egal came to the parking lot.

Stories vary at that point. Some witnesses said Arayse stabbed Egal in the arm while they were in the parking lot and Egal struck Arayse in the face with the dumbbell; other versions state the stabbing took place in the apartment, and Egal hit Arayse in the nose with his head.

Egal was taken to North Colorado Medical Center, where doctors said the arm injury was “serious.” Arayse was booked into the Weld County Jail on charges of first-degree assault and felony menacing. His bond was set at $40,000. Arayse told police he’d had five beers before the fight.
Source: The Tribune

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