CRESTVIEW — Ryan M. Johnson, 24, of Crestview, is charged with trespassing in a school safety zone, a second degree misdemeanor.
An Okaloosa schools staff member had spotted a man standing in the woods near Riverside Elementary and Shoal River Middle schools around 7:30 a.m. Thursday, about the same time students who walk there began arriving at the schools.
It was reported that he was watching children and had approached a child and offered him his jacket, before walking back into the woods.
According to an Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office press release, school resource officers, more Okaloosa deputies, a Crestview Police Department officer and a K9 team found footprints leading into the woods.
Following the trail for about a mile, they located Johnson, who matched the suspicious person description.
According to the sheriff's office arrest report, after police advised him his Miranda rights, Johnson told them he "likes to look at the younger girls walking around the middle school and fantasizing about them," and that this wasn't his first time doing so.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview man charged with trespassing near Riverside and Shoal River schools