A registered sex offender was caught Friday afternoon engaged in a brazen attempt at alleged sexual assault after sneaking into an elementary school.
The incident took place at McAuliffe Elementary School in Riverside, California. The man, 32-year-old Logan Nighswonger, reportedly jumped the school's fence before making his way inside the building, KTLA reported.
According to Riverside Police, Nighswonger, through a method that is still unknown, entered the building where he was later caught exiting a girl's bathroom by a school supervisor, who heard a 10-year-old girl crying inside. Nighswonger is now accused of attempting to sexually assault the student.
The supervisor followed the known sex offender and saw him again hop the fence to try and escape through the school parking lot. At around 12:30 p.m. local time, police were called to the school and given information about Nighswonger to help start their pursuit of him.
"A campus supervisor observed this man, later identified as Logan Nighswonger, come out of the restroom and heard a girl crying inside," the Riverside Police Department said in a news release provided to KTLA. "The campus supervisor followed Nighswonger as he jumped other fences to the parking lot and get inside a vehicle. He was then able to provide a detailed vehicle description and license plate as the suspect drove away."
Using this information, Nighswonger was eventually traced to a business in Placentia, a city roughly 33 miles west of Riverside, around 4:30 p.m. He was then detained by police, returned to Riverside, and booked without bail at Robert Presley Detention Center. He currently faces charges of attempted sex acts with a child under the age of 10, and being a registered sex offender on school grounds.
"Children should never experience a situation such as this and it deeply saddens me that this incident occurred," Alvord Unified School District Superintendent Allan Mucerino said in a statement sent to news outlets. "It gives us pause and reinforces our commitment to school safety in recognition that even when we follow safety best practices and do everything in our power to secure our campuses there continue to be threats, which we will continue to work tirelessly to mitigate."
According to information obtained by The Press-Enterprise, Nighswonger was arrested in 2015 on "suspicion of indecent exposure and annoying or molesting a child under 18 years of age," after an incident that took place at Mark Twain Elementary in Riverside. Based on his entry in the sex offender registry, he was convicted for the latter charge in 2016.
Newsweek reached out to the Riverside Police for comment.
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Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more
