Paroled, security guard with more than 16 arrests, charged with vicious attack on liquor store customer
Greely CO December 8 2020
A security guard for a downtown Greeley liquor store is in jail after a November arrest on suspicion of assault and violating parole.
The guard, identified by police as 23-year-old Dillon Munoz, had been booked into the Weld County Jail at least 16 times since October 2015, according to online arrest records, most recently in July 2019 on suspicion of third-degree assault and harassment charges, as well as bond revocations.
He was also out on parole in two Weld County cases at the time of the incident.
Police responded about 9 p.m. Nov. 7 to a report of a disturbance, meeting with a man who said he had just been assaulted by a security guard at Midnight Liquor, 1020 11th St., in Greeley.
The man, who had a cut to his head, told an officer he went to pee in the alley behind the store after making a purchase and, on returning, found his girlfriend speaking to Munoz.
Munoz had her phone in his hand, according to the alleged assault victim.
The man asked what was happening, when Munoz hit him with a baton, he later told police. After multiple hits with the baton, the man said, Munoz pepper sprayed him.
The officer could feel secondhand effects from the pepper spray off the victim, according to arrest records. Multiple witnesses corroborated the victim’s story and believed the assault was unprovoked.
Video from the incident showed Munoz strike the victim, prompting people on scene to try breaking up the fight. As more people approached Munoz, arrest records state, he pulled out the can of pepper spray and ran past the people in front of him to go spray the victim, who was about 15 feet away and not approaching, in the face.
On Nov. 11, police responded to Midnight Liquor, where they contacted Munoz.
He admitted to getting into an altercation with the victim and getting a phone number from the victim’s girlfriend, according to records.
Munoz told police he sprayed the victim because he made a racial slur towards him, and it made him feel unsafe.
Arrest records do not indicate any witnesses reported hearing a slur.
A manager at the store advised they don’t provide employees with batons, only pepper spray.
Munoz was arrested on suspicion of second-degree assault and violating parole. He remains in custody as of Sunday afternoon.
Munoz has a disposition hearing 9:30 a.m. Monday in Weld District Court.
Greely Tribune
