GRANDVIEW, Mo. — One Jackson County community remains on edge, after police warned about the sexual assault of a pre-teen girl in a public park.

Police are searching for that man, who, according to Grandview Police, may be linked to two assaults this week, the second of which happened on Thursday around noon at Meadowmere Park. 

People who use that park are stunned as police continue searching for the man accused of sexually assaulting a young girl. Grandview Police actively patrolled the park all day on Friday.

A Grandview Police spokesperson said detectives have received six useful tips thus far. Police said the man lured the child into his presence, claiming he needed help searching for a lost pet, and once they were alone, he assaulted her.

On Thursday, a Grandview Police spokesperson said the man they seek may be connected to a separate sexual assault case from Thursday morning, presumably before he went to Meadowmere Park.

The suspect they’re looking for fits this description:

• a white male, approximately 6 feet tall with a medium build
• approximately 50 years of age
• having short blonde hair
• wearing a black shirt and blue jeans
• might be driving a black pickup truck, possibly a Chevrolet

T.R. Hoefle, an attorney who organizes the Grandview Crime Watch group on Facebook, said the community is upset over this, and parents are talking with their children about safety. 

“Anybody with kids has to be on edge. It’s going to spark conversation with our kids about — what do you do if a stranger approaches you? I had that conversation with my son last night,” Hoefle said on Friday.

People using Meadowmere Park on Friday were angry too.

“The park should be a safe place where everybody should come and enjoy themselves and not have to worry about anything,” Austin Sitzmann, a park user, said.

“I’m never really looking over my shoulder, but now that this happened, I definitely will be looking over it and watching out for my youngins a little more. That’s nasty. That’s a nasty act,” an unnamed man said.

A spokesperson for the city of Grandview said Meadowmere Park has 18 security cameras in all — including five which are pointed at the playground, and late Friday afternoon, FOX4 spotted a contractor installing more security equipment. If you can help detectives find the man accused in these assaults, please contact the Grandview Police Department or through the TIPS hotline at (816) 474-8477 to provide information.