Reports of a brutal racist assault of a black man in Cottonwood started going viral on social media over the weekend, but the facts of the incident may have been drastically misunderstood. What’s not disputed is that 24-year-old Gregory Kelso suffered tragic injuries to his head and neck that put him in critical condition in Mercy Hospital, and he’s therefore unable to say what actually happened. The story as gathered by Shasta County Sheriff’s Deputies is that Kelso had been drinking throughout the day on the 4th of July. Some friends picked him up and took him to a party on Linda Lane in Cottonwood, where he kept drinking. Eventually, he drank too much and was being disruptive, so his friends escorted him outside. Kelso tried to get back in the house several times as his friends tried to restrain him. During the struggle, Kelso and one of the others fell forward onto the ground, but Kelso’s arms were being held and he couldn’t break his fall. He apparently landed head first and suffered traumatic injuries. Deputies have interviewed several witnesses and more interviews will be done, but they say that so far there’s no indication that Kelso’s injuries had anything at all to do with race.