The victims are girls between 6 and 8 years old, Police Chief Kevin Davis said, and most of the crimes happened at elementary schools in McLean and Herndon.
During a news conference Wednesday, Police Chief Kevin Davis said Arturo Elmore-Adon, 25, of Reston, has been charged with 24 felony crimes, which range from sexual assault to unlawful filming.
The victims are girls between 6 and 8 years old, Davis said, and most of the crimes happened at elementary schools in McLean and Herndon.
Many of the charges stemmed from the police department’s collaboration with Virginia’s largest school district, which Davis said was essential.
“Without it, we wouldn’t be where we are today, holding a really disturbing and sick man accountable for his actions that targeted little children,” Davis said.
The investigation started in early August, when Maj. Daniel Spital said a 7-year-old girl was shopping at a Safeway in Reston with her mom one night.
The girl noticed a man was following them, and Spital said a few minutes later, the girl told her mom that the man following them touched her inappropriately.
Police arrived, but the man, later identified as Elmore-Adon, left the store.
“Detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the grocery store, and they determined that the man had been following this family from aisle to aisle,” Spital said. “At one point, the suspect placed his cellphone under the young girl’s shorts and took a picture.”
Two days later, Spital said, Elmore-Adon was arrested and charged with aggravated sexual battery and unlawful creation of an image of another under 18.
When investigators started reviewing material on Elmore-Adon’s phone, they found over 400 photos and videos considered to be child sexual abuse material downloaded from different international websites, Spital said.
He was charged with multiple counts of possession of child sexual abuse material after investigators reviewed his devices.
Police said they also found seven videos of Fairfax County students, specifically at Churchill Road and Fox Mill elementary schools. They included four victims, between ages 6 and 8.
None of the four were physically injured, police said. They’re getting support from the police department’s victim services division and the school district.
“These seven videos were surreptitiously filmed by either hiding his phone in a bathroom or by placing his phone underneath the dresses, skirts and shorts of the young children,” Spital said.
As a result of those videos, police said Elmore-Adon was charged with seven counts of unlawful filming.
Elmore-Adon completed a background check in 2022, and was an independent contractor working with the school district’s elementary after-school programs from September 2022 to May 2023, police said.
Elmore-Aron had been working for a vendor of Baroody Camps, which Superintendent Michelle Reid said provides after-school activities or camps for students.
WTOP has contacted Baroody Camps for comment.
“As educators, we expect everyone who works with our children to have their safety and health be a top priority, and when that trust is broken … it really affects all of us,” Reid said.
All hourly and full-time employees are required to undergo background checks, Reid said.
Elmore-Adon’s recent arrest tied to the incident at the Reston grocery store was “the first notice that there was something seriously amiss,” Reid said.
The school system is following its protocols for background checks and supervision that it would for either contractors or full-time employees, Reid said.
“I want to reassure our Fairfax families and our staff that we’re doing everything within our power to maintain a healthy and safe learning space for all of our students and staff, and will continue to do so,” Reid said. “It’s a top priority.”
There’s no evidence there were crimes committed at other schools Elmore-Adon worked with, Spital said, and detectives are still reviewing over a half-terabyte of digital material.
In less than a month, 24 felony charges have been filed against Elmore-Adon.
Davis, the police chief, said based on evidence, “We have charged him with every crime that we can possibly realize.”
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