A teenage girl was rescued from the clutches of a 22-year-old man who had allegedly lured her to a Florida motel room where they had sex, according to an incident report and newly released body camera footage.
A creepy 4-minute clip released Monday by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office shows Deputy Royce James tracking down the victim at the All Suite Motel in Edgewater.
The video shows the officer repeatedly asking the suspect, Tyler Thompson, his age inside the darkened room.
“Sheriff’s office – back up,” James told a half-naked Thompson as he opened the door. “Have a seat on the couch.”
The apparently frightened girl, who never returned home from school Thursday, then ran into James’ arms and hugged the deputy as he asked her if she was OK, the video shows.
“How old are you?” James asked the Orlando man, who ignored the question three times before replying that he was 22. “Oh, you f–ked up. Yeah, you f–ked up real good.”
James then told a dispatcher he had found the missing girl with a man who was “too old” for her, according to the footage. The deputy located her after going to two other area motels following a report from her grandmother that she didn’t come home from school earlier that day.
A friend of the girl also told investigators she had planned to go to a motel with a man she’d met online, saying the person’s name was possibly “Tyler” who may have picked her up from a dollar store in Oak Hill, department officials said.
James went to a Dollar General in search of security video and found footage of the victim. An employee there said the girl had been waiting for someone to pick her up, authorities said.
The deputy then noticed a guest had checked in at the third motel he visited under the name of Tyler Thompson while providing an Orlando address. James then knocked on the door several times before the suspect opened up while wearing only shorts, the footage shows.
“You sure you’re OK, sweetheart?” James asks the girl.
Thompson was arrested for inference with child custody and traveling to meet after using a computer to lure a child. Additional charges are also pending, sheriff officials said.
He was released from the Volusia County Branch Jail late Friday after posting $15,000 bond, authorities said. It’s unclear if he’s hired an attorney who could speak on his behalf and immediate attempts to reach him Monday afternoon were unsuccessful.
Thompson is set to turn 23 on Thursday, jail records show.
Authorities said the girl, who was wearing only a T-shirt and underwear at the time, thanked James for saving her and said she couldn’t believe she didn’t recognize Thompson as a “pedophile,” according to an incident report obtained by The Post.
“He seemed so nice,” the young victim told James, adding that the pair had sex after meeting Thompson online.
The girl was later medically evaluated and then taken home. Edgewater police are now working with prosecutors to potentially file more charges in the case, a Volusia County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said Monday.
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