INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A Fort Pierce man has been arrested for traveling to meet who he thought was a minor for unlawful sexual activity and for lewd computer solicitation of a child, according to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office.
On July 25, Mackendjo Etienne, 21, of Fort Pierce, was arrested during after traveling to Indian River County to have sex with a minor, according to authorities.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, an undercover sex crime detective, on July 17, responded to a post on an online classified ad website.
The posting noted, “dominant guy looking for submissive woman to train…” In the undercover detective’s email response to the ad, the respondent made it clear to Etienne that she was 14 years old. During one of multiple email conversations, Etienne told the undercover detective that her being 14 years old, “kinda is a problem,” and he had to be careful as, “it could be a set up.”
A series of emails led to Etienne setting up a time and location to meet with whom he thought was the 14-year-old girl to engage in sexual acts, according to authorities.
On July 25, Etienne was to meet with the 14-year-old at a hotel in the 8700 block of State Road 60. He provided a vehicle description to the person he was to meet. At approximately 5 p.m., the suspect arrived in the vehicle he had described.
Etienne was taken into custody and admitted to investigators that he was the person they had been communicating with and that he thought he was there to meet a 14-year-old girl for a sexual encounter, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
This investigation was part of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office continuing involvement with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
“We will continue to seek out and arrest those who would do harm to our most vulnerable citizens,” Sheriff Deryl Loar stated in a press release. “We are thankful that this case involved one of our undercover detectives and not an actual 14-year-old child. By conducting this type of investigation and making arrests such as this, we are confident that we are preventing children from being victimized.”