Police Respond To Domestic Violence Report Where Neighbors Could Hear A Woman Screaming, “Get off of me.”
- Mar 23
- 3 min read
| by Travis Uresk | March 23rd, 2026 |
Vernal, Utah—At 2:30 in the morning on March 21st, 2026, Vernal City Police were dispatched to an apartment complex on a report of a domestic violence in progress. A neighbor reported they could hear a woman screaming, "get off of me," crying, and thumping sounds.
Officer Escobedo arrived at the apartment, and almost immediately after knocking on the door, the female came running out of the front door, crying hysterically, and collapsed on the ground a few feet from the front door. When the officer turned around, he found a male standing in the doorway, who was identified as 27-year-old Darius Demitrio Gomez.
According to the victim, the only occupants in the home were Darius and three young children.
Darius, who stated that he and the victim had been in a "serious argument". According to him, he had "held her arm" in which she then fell down, then he "picked her back up.” Darius denied having "choked" the victim, but said he had been holding the victim's wrist "because she was going to call the cops". Darius also admitted that he had taken the victim's phone away.
Darius denied that he took the victim's phone to prevent her from calling the police, but he acknowledged that he believed she was "going to call somebody." Darius explained that he grabbed the victim's wrist "because obviously, "I was irritated and I'm not in the right state of mind.” He also stated that his state of mind was anger, and that he was therefore acting out of anger.
When Officer Escobedo confronted Darius about the specific threat toward the victim, he quoted himself and stated, "Yes, I may have said "If I'm gonna go to jail I might as well make it worth it, and that's why I held her wrist".
Darius stated his intention was not that he was actually going to hurt the victim, but he compared his statement to a hypothetical situation where someone would threaten another person that they would kill them, but did not actually intend to kill them.
According to the victim, she and Darius had been in a verbal argument, which resulted in a physical altercation. The victim described this altercation as Darius holding her down on the ground by her throat and wrist, then Darius "dragging" her up the stairs to take care of their infant child because the baby was crying. The victim also stated Darius had taken her phone away from her, preventing her from being able to call law enforcement.
The victim told police that, during the altercation, Darius followed her around, preventing her from calling for help, and told her, "If I'm going to go to jail, it's going to be worth it tonight."
Officer Escobedo stated that when he first arrived, there were no sounds of distress coming from the apartment. As he spoke with the female, she told him that after the physical altercation, she had become cooperative with Darius to sneak out another phone to call for help, but when Officer Escobedo knocked on the door and announced himself, she immediately ran out of the apartment.
The officer saw some redness on the female's neck just below her jawline, and some slight red marks on her wrist as she was describing that Darius grabbed both of her wrists as he dragged her up the stairs. While the officer was speaking with the victim, she remained visibly distraught, and her appearance was disheveled, suggesting that something physical likely occurred.
Darius had been drinking and had restrained the victim during the physical altercation when she had attempted to leave the residence to go to her sister's house.
Darius had agreed to provide a PBT, which yielded a BrAC of 0.112. Darius Demitrio Gomez was arrested and booked into the Uintah County Jail.
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