The Riverside Police Department received a report that a man was on the grounds of McAuliffe Elementary School in the 4100 block of Golden Avenue at about 12:30 p.m. Friday.
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Authorities said a campus supervisor observed the man come out of the restroom and heard a girl crying inside.
The supervisor followed the man as he fled by jumping several fences into the parking lot, where he got in a vehicle and drove away, police said.
However, the witness provided investigators with a vehicle description and license plate. Officers then responded to a business in Placentia, where the suspect vehicle was registered, and arrested Logan Nighswonger, 32, of Riverside.
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Nighswonger was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center on suspicion of attempting sex acts with a child under the age of 10 and being a registered sex offender on school grounds. He was being held without bail.
Parents said the school notified them of the incident about two hours afterward. On Monday, some said their children were still traumatized about what happened.
Catalina Yanez told ABC7 that her son was at lunch at the time.
"He said that all he could hear was teachers saying, 'Run, hurry, faster, run, run, run.' And that's what played through his mind the whole weekend," Yanez said. "He did get up during the night, said, 'I had a nightmare, mom, I'm scared.'"
Dustin Nguyen said that among his concerns was, "If this is the first time this guy got caught, how many times has this happened? How many times has he done this, you know what I mean? Waiting in bathrooms for kids to come in."
"We are grateful to our law enforcement partners for their swift action in apprehending and removing this threat to our society," Alvord Unified School District Superintendent Allan Mucerino said in a news release. "Children should never experience a situation such as this and it deeply saddens me that this incident occurred. 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."
City News Service contributed to this report.