GRAPHIC: Woman raped while feeding infant at Nashville park, police say
A man was arrested over the weekend after Metro Police said he raped a woman while she fed her infant child at Shelby Park in Nashville
By Daniel Smithson and Brendan Tierney
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — A man was arrested over the weekend after Metro Police said he raped a woman while she fed her infant child at a Nashville park.
Ryean L. Floyd, 24, was charged with aggravated rape causing bodily injury and aggravated kidnapping.
Floyd, the victim and her child met at Nashville’s Shelby Park on Thursday after previously agreeing to meet up, according to an arrest report. They spent some time together, but after a while, the woman decided it was time to take her child home.
Before the woman left, she started to feed her child in her car’s backseat, police said. That’s when Floyd lifted the woman’s skirt and forcibly raped her, according to the arrest report.
The woman begging the suspect to stop, along with the crying infant, can be heard on an audio recording of the five-minute attack, police said. The victim was taken to Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital for medical attention.
The attack happened in a parking lot near a playground at Shelby Bottoms, according to the affidavit. Monique Becker brings her two-year-old son there every week and said she was not surprised because the park often has concerning people in it.
“I always lock my doors and stay alert,” Becker said. “Monitor who is around me. I don’t let people get too close. Like 10 feet and then I start looking behind me and start thinking of contingency plans should they do anything that’s in my bubble.”
Other people told WSMV4 they generally feel safe in East Nashville but still only go to the park during the day and stay in a group. Some even share their location with family members just in case something bad does happen.
“I’ve come out here several times and always felt very safe,” Grayson Perkins said. “This whole community feels very safe. You see kids walking to school, you see women jogging at night. I think it is a travesty what happened.”
Floyd was arrested and held on a $65,000 bond but does not currently show up on Metro Nashville’s jail roster. He’s scheduled to appear in court on June 12.
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