A woman thought she was meeting up with a friend, but the encounter eventually turned violent when that man allegedly decided to attack her.
On May 1, around 4:53 pm, Gallup Police Officer Gilbert Gonzales was dispatched to the 2500 block of Mariyana Street when a witness noticed a woman in a car yelling that a man had raped her.
Tyrill Tom, 32, of Arizona, was sitting in the driver’s seat when Officer Christopher Dawes and Gonzales arrived at the scene.
When the officers asked for the people in the car to come out, a woman exited the passenger side of the vehicle.
The officers then continued to ask Tom, 32, to exit the vehicle, but he repeatedly refused their demands. Officers eventually detained him, and Gonzales was able to speak with the victim. She explained that she had met Tom over social media.
According to the report, the victim explained that Tom lived out of state, but that they’d hung out as friends twice before. She said she hadn’t known he was in town. She’d been walking on Second Street earlier in the day when she ran into him, and he offered to give her a ride.
They drove to Sports Page, 1400 S. Second St., where they sat in the parking lot and drank vodka.
Eventually the woman said she was done drinking and that she wanted to leave, but Tom refused to let her leave and drove to Mariyana Street.
The report states Tom asked the woman if she would have sex with him, and she refused and tried to get out of the car. Tom grabbed her arm and told her he had a gun in the trunk of the car, and if she didn’t have sex with him, he would shoot her. He then proceeded to hit her.
Tom forced the woman into the backseat of the car, took off her clothes, and raped her. According to the criminal complaint, the woman didn’t know if Tom had used a condom or not.
The witness who called in the incident said he noticed the car on the road, and when he drove by it, he saw Tom on top of the victim. That’s when the victim yelled out “help, he’s raping me!”
The victim was taken to Rehoboth McKinley County Health Care Services. Gonzales took photos of her injuries.
Tom was transported to the McKinley County Adult Detention Center, where he was booked for rape and kidnapping. His preliminary hearing was on May 11.
Staff Reports
