Registered sex offender attempted to sexually assault child in girls' restroom at California school: police

A registered sex offender was arrested for attempting to sexually assault a child in a girls' restroom at a California school, police say.

Logan Nighswonger, 32, was arrested on Friday afternoon by officers with the Riverside Police Department. He was charged with attempted sex acts with a child under the age of 10 and being a registered sex offender on school grounds. He is being held without bail.

Police said in a statement that Nighswonger jumped the fence surrounding the McAuliffe Elementary School in Riverside. A campus supervisor allegedly heard a girl crying inside a school bathroom and observed the man come out of the restroom.

The school supervisor reportedly followed Nighswonger as he exited the school, jumped the fence, and entered his vehicle at a parking lot. The school supervisor provided police with a description of the vehicle and the car's license plate.

Police did not reveal how Nighswonger was able to enter the school building.

Law enforcement tracked Nighswonger to a business in the city of Placentia – roughly 30 miles from Riverside. His vehicle was registered in Placentia.

Police arrested Nighswonger, transported him back to Riverside, and booked him into jail.

An investigation into the sexual assault of the child was launched by Riverside Police School Resource Officers assigned to the Alvord Unified School District. Assisting in the investigation were detectives with the Riverside Police Department's Sexual Assault Child Abuse Unit and specialists from the Forensics Unit.

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."

Alvord Unified School District Superintendent Allan Mucerino said in a statement, "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."

"We are grateful to our law enforcement partners for their swift action in apprehending and removing this threat to our society," Mucerino added.

Anyone with additional information regarding the sexual assault is asked to contact Riverside Police's Sexual Assault's Child Abuse Unit at 951-353-7121.

A court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

Law & Crime reported that Nighswonger "landed on the California sex offender registry because of a 2016 conviction for annoying or molesting a child under 18 years of age, online records show."