Registered Sex Offender Attempts To Sexually Assault 10-Year-Old In School, Gets Arrested: Police

A 32-year-old man has been arrested and is being held without bail after allegedly attempting to sexually assault a 10-year-old girl inside an elementary school in Riverside, California, Friday, police said.

The suspect, identified as Logan Nighswonger, was charged with attempting sex acts with a child under the age of 10 and being a registered sex offender on school grounds, KTLA reported. He was being held without bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center.

Riverside Police were called to McAuliffe Elementary School in Riverside at around 12:30 p.m. Friday after receiving a report that a man had jumped the school fence and entered the girls' restroom.

"A campus supervisor observed this man, later identified as Logan Nighswonger, come out of the restroom and heard a girl crying inside," police said in a news release. "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."

It remains unclear how Nighswonger was able to enter the school premises.

Police arrested the 32-year-old man after they tracked his vehicle to a business in Placentia, California. Authorities then transported him back to Riverside and booked him into jail.

"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, according to the press release. "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 continues to be threats, which we will continue to work tirelessly to mitigate."

In a statement, Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez said, "The safety of our students and staff at school will always remain amongst our top priorities. When that safety is put at risk, we will do everything within the law to quickly find and arrest the person responsible as we did yesterday."

According to the California Megan's Law database, a public sex offender registry, Nighswonger maintains a residence in Riverside, The Press-Enterprise reported.

He was previously arrested in 2015 on suspicion of indecent exposure and annoying or molesting a child under 18 years of age at Mark Twain Elementary, according to Riverside police.

In 2016, Nighswonger was convicted on charges of annoying/molesting a child under 18 years old, according to his sex offender profile.

Nighswonger is due to appear in court Tuesday at the Riverside Hall of Justice. It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.