Man with 'fascination with mass school shootings' allegedly places dead animals on Parkland memorial
09/02/2022 11:57 am PDT
PARKLAND, Fla. (TCD) -- A 29-year-old man was arrested and charged after allegedly defacing a school shooting memorial with dead animals.
On July 20, a school crossing guard found a deceased duck on a bench at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Memorial Garden outside the school with its chest cavity cut open, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said. The next day, on July 21, the school crossing guard reportedly found a dead raccoon on the same bench, and on July 31, a deputy discovered a dead opossum in the same location.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, detectives used surveillance video and saw a white Nissan with black rims drive up toward the memorial on July 30 shortly after 11 p.m. A male driver reportedly exited the vehicle and was seen walking to the passenger door of his car. He allegedly went to the memorial before driving away.
The same Nissan was seen on July 31 by a deputy, and it was pulled over for a traffic stop, the Sheriff’s Office said. The person in the car, Robert Mondragon, allegedly had bird feathers and blood on the front passenger side floorboard of his vehicle and told the deputy he had it there because he likes "the metal and blood smell that emit from the dead animal."
Upon further investigation, the Sheriff’s Office said they learned Mondragon intentionally placed the dead animals on the Parkland school shooting memorial, and he had a "disturbing fascination with mass school shootings."
Authorities reportedly recovered his phone and found a photo of Mondragon holding the dead duck with its chest cavity cut open, along with a photo of a dead raccoon on the floorboard of his car.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, "Mondragon’s facial tattoos resemble those of Tate Langdon, the character from the television series 'American Horror Story' based on the Columbine High School massacre."
Upon further search of Mondragon, investigators reportedly found text and online searches about school shooters, how to break into steel doors, shootings involving numerous victims, pipe bombs, and "slang terms for killing cops."
Two weeks before the end of the 2021-2022 school year, Mondragon allegedly walked the path from Marjory Stoneman Douglas School to Walmart, the same path the MSD school shooter walked on Feb. 14, 2018.
Mondragon was arrested and charged with removing or disfiguring a tomb or monument, violation of probation for battery and indecent exposure, and violation of a risk protection order, according to the Sheriff’s Office. He remains held without bond.
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