Officers stopped an alleged attempted rape in Pierson on Saturday after a woman surreptitiously let dispatchers know she was in trouble by pretending to order a pizza, according to a Facebook post from Sheriff Mike Chitwood and the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.
Around 4 a.m., a woman called 911 and asked to order a pizza. The dispatcher asked her if she knew she was calling 911, and she said yes. In a tense exchange that followed, the woman answered what she could, without alerting the person with her.
Because she couldn’t provide an address, the sheriff’s office was able to link her cell phone to a field in Pierson, a rural area with lots of ferns, Chitwood said.
“Officers got out on foot and began searching the ferns. Eventually they heard loud music coming from a field. As they approached the noise, they discovered a male on top of a female screaming,” Chitwood said.
The sheriff’s office released video of the rescue, showing the woman pleading for help as emergency responders arrive.
‘He’s trying to rape me. Can you help me?’ she shouts.
She cries as officers handcuff the man and comfort her.
‘We’re here now. OK,” a deputy says. “Hey, we’re here. We’re here… Let’s catch our breath.”
Officers arrested Luis Diego Hernandez-Moncayo, 27, on charges of attempted sexual battery, battery by strangulation and false imprisonment, the post said. He is being held without bond.
He is in the country illegally and the US Border Patrol has an immigration officer with him.
According to the post, Hernandez-Moncayo reportedly applied for asylum the day before the incident.
Chitwood said the two people knew each other and planned to have drinks at the fernery.
“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.
This article originally appeared in The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia Sheriff’s Office stops attempted rape after 911 ‘pizza’ call
