A twenty-year-old illegal immigrant has been arrested after allegedly kidnapping and raping an 11-year-old girl in front of her home in Florida.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office identified Marvin Dionel Pérez López as the girl’s attacker, alleging that he forced her into his white van where the alleged sexual assault took place.
The girl’s mother, police say, looked for her daughter and saw the truck not far from where she and Lopez lived in Lake Worth.
The mother saw her daughter and the suspect in the van and began banging on the door, yelling at him to release the girl, according to an arrest report.
Sheriff’s deputies said Lopez fled the truck at that time. Then, the victim’s mother stopped by López’s apartment, where his brother also lived. Lopez’s brother made him return home where his mother confronted him.
After hearing Lopez’s pleas for forgiveness, the victim’s mother called 911.
IN THE PHOTO: Marvin Dionel Pérez López, the suspect in an alleged rape of an 11-year-old girl. He appears bruised and bloody in the mugshot of him, but it is unclear who inflicted those injuries.
An excerpt from the arrest affidavit where it says the suspect said he was sorry and apologized to the girl’s mother.
Investigators at the scene interviewed the victim, who told them that Lopez forced himself on her even after she tried to refuse and escape.
At the same time, López tried to flee again, this time through a back window of his apartment. Police noticed Lopez doing this and chased him. It’s unclear if he was caught at the time, but police confirmed Lopez’s arrest on Monday.
López is from Guatemala and left the Central American country in January, according to local station WPTV. When he crossed into Mexico, he allegedly surrendered to border patrol and was given a court date in 2027, after which he was released.
At the end of January he arrived in Florida. It’s unclear how Lopez got an apartment in Palm Beach or what he does for a living.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said Lopez “has confessed to the crime.”
You will be tried for a capital crime before you even remotely think you will be deported. He will serve his sentence here first,” Bradshaw said.
An expert spoke to CBS12 and said that this type of crime is rare.
‘Rape by strangers is much less common than rape by an acquaintance. So most of the time it’s someone the person knows,” said Nicole Bishop, director of Palm Beach County Victim Services.
Hermencia Vásquez, López’s sister-in-law, said she asked him if he would be responsible for the 11-year-old girl’s baby if she became pregnant due to her alleged rape. According to her, López said that he would be responsible
Pictured: Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, whose department captured and arrested Lopez, the suspect in the rape of an 11-year-old girl.
Hermencia Vásquez, López’s sister-in-law, said she was at home when the alleged victim’s mother also knocked on her door.
“It was 9 at night and the lady/mother came into my house saying that something happened with her daughter and Marvin,” Vásquez said in an interview with WPTV. “I asked Marvin what he would do if she got pregnant and if he would be responsible, and he said yes, he would be responsible for the child.”
Since the immigration crisis began to capture the attention of politicians and citizens alike, the media has been highlighting particularly gruesome crimes committed by immigrants who were not supposed to be in the United States at the time of their crimes.
Murdered nursing student Laken Riley suffered a disfigured skull after being beaten to death by an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant
Jose Ibarra, 26, is accused of using a mysterious object as a weapon to kill the 22-year-old Augusta University student.
A case that has had special permanence is the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley at the hands of undocumented Venezuelan immigrant José Ibarra, 26.
Lopez was arrested on charges of kidnapping to sexually assault a minor, sexual assault of a victim under 12 years old, and resisting an officer without violence.
He is currently being held in the Palm Beach County Jail without bail.
