Neighbors react after Tice man arrested for child sexual assault

Reporter: Annalise Iraola Writer: Elyssa Morataya
Published: Updated:

A Lee County Sheriff’s Office chopper and drones searched two massive scenes on the ground Thursday looking for a man wanted for sexually assaulting a young girl.

LCSO says a girl was walking to her bus stop when 38-year-old Raymond De Jesus approached her and dragged her to Schandler Hall Park.

He is accused of sexually battering that girl at knife point near the playground.

“Just throw the whole book at them. You don’t do that,” said Esmeralda Zamora. “Whenever she was walking to school, she was vulnerable.”

Zamora, a mother and member of the community, was heartbroken to learn of what happened.

“To know that this happened to her, it’s awful even though she had to endure all that, and she’s just a child. She was going to school. You know what I’m saying? Like to even find this information out, it bothers us really bad,” said Zamora.

The victim told her mom who called the Lee County Sheriff’s Office which then flooded the area. Deputies located De Jesus at the home he was living at on Prospect Avenue.

Deputies used tear gas as he hid in the attic, and he was eventually arrested and taken to jail.

Zamora says she prays with time the girl can heal from what happened.

“I pray to the lord Jesus Christ that she be able to recover and become a strong, independent woman when it comes down to this, because to be able to endure such terror as a child this, this should never happen to her,” said Zamora.

De Jesus is charged with kidnapping and sexual battery with a weapon or force.

In a statement, LCSO said in part, “De Jesus will face the justice he deserves knowing his last hours of freedom were cowering in fear from his own actions.”

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