(Disclaimer: The above is not a photo of the victim.)

What's wrong with this headline? EVERYTHING. Fourteen is not the age of adulthood, this is childhood. It upset me greatly that one report would dare to term this child as a woman and somehow marginalize the devastating impact of this crime- unintentional, maybe. Let it not be ignored that while this would be awful if it happened to woman of sexual consenting age, it makes a deeper cut when this behavior is aimed at a child. That being said...

This story comes from the State of Florida. (pause for the shaking of many heads) It was 7pm on Sunday the 22nd of September 2013 when a fourteen year old girl was walking down the road. Adrian Mendez, age 21, approached her in his SUV and propositioned her $200 to have sex with him. Stop. Right. There.

(Below is the mugshot of Adrian Mendez, remember this face if he goes free.)

What could have triggered in his brain to make him believe that a fourteen year old girl, a girl period, would be someone to not only lust after but to offer money to to satisfy his devious sexual desires? If he were to argue that her physical appearance was misleading and he thought she was older, the next question would be "what made you think that this random person was someone remotely open to the possibility of PPP (Pay Per Pleasure)?" No answer would grant him pardon. The story does not end there...

The young girl refused Mendez's sexual proposal and that sparked his rage. The victim, from her hospital bed, told police that he grabbed her hair and pulled her into his SUV and strangled her until she passed out. Passed out! From there, Mendez threw her out of the car, literally. This story goes from bad to worse to HORRIFIC. Adrian Mendez began to do something incomprehensible- he drove his SUV over this fourteen year old girl's body REPEATEDLY! Thank God, some people began to notice what he was doing and screamed for him to stop. Witnesses were astonished at what they were seeing, they could not believe it was a young girl's body in the street being purposefully run over not once or twice but multiple times. Mendez stopped when the screams made him aware that he was being watched, then he fled. Cowardly and pathetic. When help arrived they found the girl's body laying in the street on Wilson Parrish Road near Umatilla. The victim needed to be airlifted to the hospital where she would be treated for the life threatening injuries she sustained- neck injuries and crushed hips and legs. No person should have to experience this, even more so a child- a child protecting her self.

I will say this, in this awful incident I see two victories. The first, this brave little girl protected her value and tried to protect her well being, she demonstrated wisdom. The second, the screaming witnesses who got the criminal to stop trying to kill this young girl and it resulted in saving her life. More great news is that she positively identified Adrian Mendez from a photo line-up, he was arrested at his home in Marion County, Florida the next day (Monday) and has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment. The victim is in stable condition. She is a survivor!

Cops: Man kidnapped, ran over teen (clickorlando.com)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/adrian-mendez-runs-girl-over-wont-have-sex-with-him_n_3984038.html
http://globalgrind.com/2013/09/25/florida-man-runs-over-14-year-old-because-she-wouldnt-have-sex-with-him-details/?utm_source=Facebook

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