Driver picks up woman, tries to assault her, NC cops say. A secret 911 call saved her
A woman in North Carolina stopped a sexual assault when she grabbed her assailant’s phone and secrety dialed 911 so dispatchers could hear, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies in Rowan County responding to the scene on Sunday found 44-year-old Daniel Masias Lopez sitting in his car off the roadway with the woman inside. He was charged with first-degree sexual offense and kidnapping, according to an arrest report.
“The victim states that the struggle continued until she heard sirens coming, and then Lopez asked her if she had called law enforcement,” Capt. John Sifford told McClatchy news group in an email Tuesday. “The victim said that sheriff’s deputies approached the car and took control of the situation.”
Sifford said detectives who spoke with the woman, who is identified only as a 30-year-old female, determined she met the man earlier in the day.
According to the Salisbury Post, the pair became acquainted at the Rowan Helping Ministry Shelter — a food pantry and homeless shelter. She reportedly asked Lopez for a ride to her friend’s house to take a shower.
Sifford said the woman told deputies that she asked to use his phone or charge her own while he was sitting in his car. He reportedly allowed her to use his, at which point she called a friend and asked to come over.
When she gave him directions, Sifford said Lopez started driving until he reached a field and backed in. He then reportedly told her to have sex with him.
Despite her refusal, Sifford said Lopez “began to put his hands all over her, and began to attempt to assault her.”
He then reportedly opened a pocket knife and left it sitting on the dashboard while he tried to undress the woman.
That’s when she grabbed his phone, Sifford said.
The woman dialed 911, where dispatchers reported hearing “the voices of a Spanish speaking male and of a female” engaged in what “could be some type of sexual assault in progress.”
Rowan County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the location and found a silver Mercury “sitting off the roadway, near the wood line,” Sifford said.
Lopez and the woman were taken to the sheriff’s office and the car was towed.
Police then transported the woman to Novant Health for a rape kit, Sifford said. Arrest records show Lopez was being held under a $120,000 bond with an immigration detainer placed on him by ICE.
Immigration officials will issue a detainer when someone they believe is in the country illegally has been arrested on criminal charges. Local law enforcement are asked to inform ICE before that person is released so immigration officials can then take him or her into custody.
