A convicted child molester was shot while attempting to rape a 12-year-old girl in a hotel room, according to Indiana authorities.
According to an affidavit filed in Marion County, the victim’s mother fired the shot on May 24 at Bruce Pierce, who the Marion County Sheriff’s Office classifies as a “sexually violent predator”.
When Indianapolis police officers responded to an attempted rape call at a Baymont Inn, they discovered that the man accused of the crime had been shot and was being transported to a hospital, according to authorities.
According to the affidavit, officers spoke with the victim’s family members, including one relative, who stated that the 12-year-old “had been communicating online and on the phone” with Pierce. She went on to say that Pierce had been attempting “to get her to run away with him.”
According to the relative, the 12-year-old and her sibling woke her up because their mother had not returned home, police said. They went to the Baymont Inn to find her, and the mother was in the lobby with Pierce.
The relationship between Pierce and the victim’s mother is unclear.
As some family members began taking the mother’s belongings to their vehicle, the 12-year-old girl was left alone with Pierce in the hotel room, according to police.
The victim informed officers Pierce said she could sit on his bed, according to the affidavit. When she did, Pierce grabbed her arms, pinning them to the bed, and “began ripping off her clothing,” according to police.
Pierce had his gun on the bed, and when the victim’s mother returned to the room, she heard her child say, “No, no, no,” according to police. She opened the door to find Pierce on top of her daughter, her tank top and underwear ripped, according to court documents.
According to the affidavit, Pierce was shot by the mother, who then fled the hotel with her daughter before calling police.
A detective who responded to the hotel discovered “blood on the walls and floor” as well as several blood-covered items near spent shell casings and live rounds, according to police reports.
Pierce’s injuries were unspecified. He was charged with attempted rape, attempted child molestation, unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, and criminal confinement of a victim under the age of 14, according to court records.
Pierce was found guilty of child molestation in two counties in 2016 and sentenced to eight years in prison, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.