Left: Said Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez (Martin County Sheriff's Office). Right: Tiger Shore Beach in Stuart, Florida, where Hernandez Gonzalez allegedly tried to drown a woman (Google Maps).
A woman walking alone on a Florida beach nearly drowned after a man allegedly randomly attacked her and held her head underwater until he thought he killed her.
Said Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez, 26, stands accused of first-degree attempted murder. The Martin County Sheriff's Office said the incident occurred around 11 p.m. Thursday at Tiger Shore Beach in Stuart.
A probable cause arrest affidavit said police learned something was amiss when a man called to say he was talking on the phone with a relative when he suddenly heard her screaming. The call disconnected and he couldn't reach her again.
About 20 minutes later, cops found the victim, who "appeared visibly distressed, was shaking and had visible marks around her neck." She said she was walking along the shoreline at the beach and speaking on the phone with the relative when someone attacked her from behind.
"The suspect pulled her hair, grabbed her neck, and forced her head underwater in the ocean, holding her there so she could not breathe and causing her to swallow seawater," cops wrote.
He also allegedly chucked her phone into the water. The victim said she had seen a man who she believed was her attacker about five minutes before the incident but could not identify him due to the darkness.
"The subject rolled her onto her face and placed his full body weight on her head with one hand while striking her repeatedly with elbow strikes to the back of her head and the left side of her face with his other hand," she said.
She said the suspect did not say anything during the attack and she believed she may have lost consciousness at some point. The next thing she remembered was crawling out of the ocean. She ran back to her car, where she found deputies.
On Sunday, cops in nearby Port St. Lucie began investigating a mental health crisis incident involving Hernandez Gonzalez, who said he killed a woman by drowning her, according to the affidavit.
In a post-Miranda interview with cops, Hernandez Gonzalez said he was at the beach on the night in question when he saw a woman walking alone along the shoreline talking on the phone. The suspect said he didn't plan on attacking anyone but he was feeling suicidal, per the affidavit. He allegedly attacked her from behind, threw her phone in the water and began choking her.
They began to struggle and the victim yelled "who the f– are you?" That's when he allegedly began holding her head underwater.
"Said stated the [victim] eventually stopped fighting, and he believed she died," cops wrote. "Said stated 'I thought that I could not stop right now' because he had gone too far, so he started choking her until she stopped moving."
Hernandez Gonzalez said he moved her body with his foot to confirm she was dead and left her along the shoreline before walking back to his car, according to cops.
When asked if he felt bad about what he allegedly did, he said "No, I don't feel nothing," which he felt was a "problem."
Cops arrested the suspect and took him to the Martin County Jail where he remains without bond. Authorities say he is an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela.
Comments