A man accused of following and harassing school children at a Temecula park was charged Wednesday with stalking and loitering.
Adam Paul Baumgartel, 26, was arrested Friday night following a Riverside County sheriff’s investigation centered at Kent Hintergardt Park, adjacent to Stanley Gardner Middle School.
Baumgartel, who is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center, is slated to make his initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Joseph Greco, deputies were called to Hintergardt Park shortly before 3 p.m. Friday to investigate reports of a man accosting and trailing youths leaving school and walking through the area.
Witnesses provided a description of the alleged stalker, later identified as Baumgartel, but he was not immediately found, Greco said.
Deputies fanned out to search the neighborhood, and when they reached the 32000 block of Cam San Jose, near Via Saltio, directly across from Red Hawk Elementary School, they spotted the defendant, who was detained without a struggle, the sergeant said.
Baumgartel was positively identified by witnesses, after which he was questioned by detectives and formally arrested a few hours later, Greco said, adding that the defendant is suspected of involvement in an earlier child annoyance incident.
Baumgartel has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.