For the past two months, Covington police have scoured downtown Covington in search of black male seen masturbating in front of women and school children.

They caught him Wednesday in his car, not far from St. Scholastica Academy, with his pants down, a tube of Vaseline, box cutters and a cord.

Aaron J. Mitchell, 20, 21241 Dogwood St., was arrested at the corner of E. 20th Avenue and Jahncke Avenue and charged with four counts of obscenity and two charges of failure to appear in court for prior traffic violations, Capt. Jack West, Covington Police spokesman, said.

Mitchell

Also inside his car were six other prior traffic tickets, West said. And although he had no driver’s license or license plates, Covington police did not issued those tickets because they didn’t want to “muddy” the charges, West said.

The flasher first made waves two months ago in August when reports poured in of a male driving a dark green 1994 Chrysler Concorde up to females at local businesses and touching himself. Most of those women declined to press charges but wanted to warn police of his presence. What alarmed police the most, however, was five other reports from coaches and students of a local school who also saw the man performing lewd acts, West said.

Despite an aggressive manhunt, the suspect kept eluding authorities.

“He was smart about it,” West said. “Although he has a Covington address, it’s really near Abita Springs. Each time he came into the city and exposed himself he would jump on (Louisiana Highway) 36 and get out of town.”

One patrolman even staked out the La. 36 entrance into Covington for a week with no luck, West said.

On Tuesday, however, Covington police got their break.

Emergency 911 phone lines lit up that afternoon when several students and coaches observed the man drive by, “engaged in his usual activity,” West said.

Watching the Chrysler creep by, coaches again called authorities when Mitchell stopped at East 20th Avenue and Jahncke Avenue, West said. Three minutes later police arrived and blocked the car from leaving.

At first Mitchell denied exposing himself. Later, when questioned by investigators, he admitted to going by the school on five separate occasions but denied committing the offense at other businesses in Covington, West said.

Since no other witness pressed charges, and only four of the five incidents at the school were confirmed, Mitchell was only booked with four obscenity charges, although he’s suspected of more, West said.

Mitchell is no stranger to the law. On Oct. 2, 2008, Mandeville police arrested him on similar charges.