WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — A Friona, Texas, man is in the Wichita County Jail on child molestation charges stemming from an alleged incident at a Wichita Falls Walmart a year ago.
in November, according to the arrest warrant. On February 22, 2022, Wichita Falls Police were dispatched to Walmart, 2700 Central Freeway, after a child complained to her mother that she had been groped inside the store.
The children’s mother told police she was at Walmart with her two children when she noticed a man following them and became uncomfortable.
The mother told police that she was looking at clothes in the children’s clothing store when the same man passed by. When she bent down to put her clothes back on the shelf and looked back at her daughter, she saw the man drop her jacket. She said she said, “It’s my fault,” before he walked away. The child said the man touched him between his legs twice. She said he was 6 feet tall, had a beard and was wearing all black.
A Walmart asset protection officer followed the suspect into the restroom and waited for the suspect to exit the stall. He confronted the suspect, who asked him, “Did he touch some kids?” However, the suspect did not respond and acted suspiciously. He was escorted out. Conservation officers were briefed about their vehicles upon departure.
When police checked the security camera footage, they saw the suspect entering the bathroom, just as the mother had testified.
Police used facial recognition software to read the suspect’s photo and identified him as 30-year-old Edward Peter Leon. They looked up Leon on Facebook and found him and the car he was seen leaving.
A criminal record review revealed that Leon had three counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor during arrest in New Mexico.
An arrest warrant was issued. He was jailed on Tuesday, November 22, 2023, on $200,000 bail on a lewd indecency charge for sexual contact with a child in connection with the Wichita Falls incident.