Ezayah Gomez Oropeza Charged With Assaulting Man Outside St. Cloud Home
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 20-year-old man is accused of beating another man until he was bloodied and unconscious when the man tried to intervene in an argument between the accused and a female companion.
Ezayah Marcell Gomez Oropeza is charged with third-degree assault, according to Stearns County court documents.
A criminal complaint states police responded to a residence on the 700 block of Seventh Avenue South in St. Cloud Sept. 18 after a 911 caller reported an unconscious man on the ground.
The caller's son said he saw a man "being punched repeatedly and knocked unconscious."
When police arrived, they found blood on the back door of a nearby home. They went inside, finding a man whose face was injured and "was showing signs of having been unconscious."
Other officers encountered a man -- later identified as Gomez Oropeza -- and a man woman walking nearby. When questioned, Gomez Oropeza allegedly told officers he had "knocked [the victim] out" and that he "did not have knife, did not have a gun, so I hit him." Gomez Oropeza said the man who was beaten came out of his house to yell at him and the woman.
According to the victim's account, witness interviews and surveillance video, Gomez Oropeza and the woman were arguing outside the victim's home. When the victim came out to see what was happening, Gomez Oropeza allegedly charged at him, tackled him and punched him in the face multiple times.
The victim will require extensive facial surgeries and medical care, the complaint states.
St. Cloud State University said previously this incident involved two students, one of them also an athlete at the school. The university's website lists an Ezayah Gomez on the wrestling roster. The school said the athlete has been suspended from team activities indefinitely.
Gomez Oropeza made his first court appearance Thursday morning and is due back in court in December.
