PHOTO / MICHELE EVE SANDBERG
The Volusia Sheriff’s Office in Florida released a video Friday appearing to show an illegal immigrant trying to rape a young woman after she called 9-1-1.
While on the emergency phone line, the woman pretended to order a pizza, a common euphemism for rape and assault victims who don’t want to tip off their assailant that they’re calling for help.
When sheriffs located the caller, she yelled, “he’s trying to rape me, can you help me!”
“Hey, get off her now!” one sheriff yelled, the video shows.
As the officers apprehended the suspect, the alleged victim began crying profusely and screamed, “THANK GOD, THANK YOU, JESUS!”
The woman continued to thank God through tears while she said, “he tried to rape me.”
The suspect, a 27-year-old named Luis Diego Hernandez-Moncayo, was in the country illegally and had just applied for asylum the day before the incident, according to Volusia Sheriff’s Office
“When you watch the video, if you’re a father, if you’re a grandfather, if you’re a brother … and you hear those screams coming from our victim, it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up,” Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said in an official police department video.
The victim knew Hernandez-Moncayo and went into a field with him to have some drinks but “that’s all it was supposed to be,” Chitwood said.
“However, during this outing, he did a line of cocaine and she said he did a 180 and he became extremely violent and wouldn’t let her go and tried to rape her,” Chitwood said.
The sheriff’s office charged Hernandez-Moncayo with attempted sexual battery, battery by strangulation and false imprisonment.
U.S. Border Patrol also placed an immigration detainer on him, according to the sheriff’s office.