A man, who deputies said had a "distributing fascination" with school shootings, was recently arrested for placing dead animals at the Parkland, Florida, school shooting memorial.
In a press release on Friday, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said that 29-year-old Robert Mondragon was arrested "on charges of removing or disfiguring a tomb or monument (three counts), violation of probation for battery and indecent exposure (five counts) and violation of a risk protection order."
Mondragon's arrest on August 4 comes shortly after a school crossing guard noticed dead animals being placed at the MSD Memorial Garden, which is a memorial site in honor of the 17 people who were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by former student and gunman Nikolas Cruz in February 2018.
According to the sheriff's office, on July 20, the crossing guard noticed a "dead duck with its chest cavity cut open," placed on a bench near the memorial. A day later, the crossing guard discovered a dead raccoon on the bench. On July 31, after the sheriff's office learned of the dead animals, a deputy "found a dead opossum on the bench."
Using surveillance video, detectives with the sheriff's office noticed a white Nissan arriving at the memorial on July 30. In the footage, a man was seen getting out of the car, walking over to the passenger's side, and then heading toward the memorial. The man stayed for several minutes until getting back into his car and driving away, according to the sheriff's office.
On July 31, a "vigilant BSO Parkland district deputy," conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle matching the description of the one seen in the surveillance footage.
"The deputy said Mondragon was the only person in the car, and the deputy saw bird feathers and blood on the front passenger side floorboard. Mondragon told the deputy he had the dead bird in his car because he likes 'the metal and blood smell that emit from the dead animal,'" the press release said.
On August 4, Mondragon was arrested by officials with the sheriff's office's Violence Intervention Proactive Enforcement Response (VIPER) "for violating his probation for battery and indecent exposure and for violating his risk protection order." Following his arrest, detectives, after obtaining various search warrants, continued their investigation into the dead animals and found pictures on Mondragon's phone that matched the animals found at the memorial.
The sheriff's office's Threat Management Unit (TMU) "said further investigation revealed Mondragon's obsession with school shooters, both real and fictional."
"They said 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. They said they also found text messages about school shootings and internet searches about school shooters, how to break into steel doors, shootings involving multiple victims, pipe bombs, as well as slang terms for killing cops," the press release said.
Newsweek was directed to the press release after reaching out to the Broward County Sheriff's Office for comment.
Additionally, the investigation revealed that at the end of the past school year, Mondragon walked the same path that Cruz did from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to a Walmart after he committed the mass shooting.
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Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
