Hotel security guard wanted for spring break assault captured www.privateofficer.com

Panama City Fla. March 19 2008
A security guard accused of sexually assaulting a Tuscaloosa teenager and pushing her from a hotel balcony in Florida is behind bars.

Shawn Wuertley, 29, was charged Tuesday with attempted murder, sexual battery and false imprisonment in connection with the assault of the 18-year-old University of Alabama student at the Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort in Panama City Beach early Monday morning.

Wuertley is accused of pushing the 2007 Hillcrest High School graduate into an empty room at 1 a.m. Monday and assaulting her.

Police allege that he pushed her from the sixth-floor balcony during a struggle. The woman landed on a second-floor stairwell and suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries, police said.

News of the attack didn’t take long to spread amongst other Tuscaloosa teenagers headed to the coast for spring break.“It’s weird because we all grew up in Tuscaloosa, and have always been so sheltered, but now we’re growing up and doing things on our own.

It’s scary to think that there are people out there who would try to hurt us,” said Amy Mitchell, a Hillcrest High School senior who is spending the week in Orange Beach with six of her friends. Her parents and grandfather are staying in a room in the same condominium.“Knowing that they’re here to check on us when they want has helped,” said Emily Thompson, 18, who is Tuscaloosa News publisher Tim Thompson’s daughter. “Everybody is talking about this.

It makes me feel uncomfortable to know that there are people you’re supposed to be able to trust, like security guards, that are not so trustworthy. You have to look out for yourself and trust no one — it is definitely a wake-up call.”

Bay County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Wuertley on Tuesday afternoon, according to a news release. He was questioned by Panama City Police investigators and booked into the Bay County Jail.Criminal records from Indiana show that

Wuertley, 29, served time in prison for several felonies, none of them violent. He was convicted on burglary charges from 1998, 1999 and 2004, and on car theft, theft and two receiving stolen property charges in 1999. He was also convicted of failure to return lawfully/escape in 2004. Records show that Wuertley served time in Indiana prisons between 1998 and 2005. A resort manager said Tuesday afternoon that the staff had no comment but might later in the week.“As of now we’ve got nothing to say,” he said.Panama City Police spokesman Maj. Dave Humphreys told the Panama City News Herald Monday that the victim suffered from head and leg injuries. She was still hospitalized Tuesday.

Police questioned Wuertley, who was on duty at the time of the assault Monday morning, but let him go because they did not have enough information to charge him. Investigators later learned that he had outstanding burglary charges in Indiana. The department is looking into why investigators did not check his criminal history before he was let go, Humphreys said.

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