A Florida man obsessed with mass school shootings has been charged for leaving dead animals at a memorial in Parkland, Florida, where ...
A Florida man obsessed with mass school shootings has been charged for leaving dead animals at a memorial in Parkland, Florida, where 17 victims from the Parkland school massacre lay to rest.
Robert Mondragon, 29, faces three felony charges for allegedly disfiguring a monument outside of Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and for violating probation for battery, five counts of indecent exposure, and breaking a risk protection order, authorities said Friday.
Broward Sheriff’s Office said a school crossing guard found a dead raccoon, opossum, and duck with its chest cavity cut open outside the high school on the same memorial bench between July 20 and July 31.
Detectives uncovered video surveillance which revealed a male exit a white Nissan with all black rims or tires at the memorial on July 30 and entering the memorial site for several minutes before returning to the vehicle and leaving. Officials spotted the same car slowly driving near the high school the following night, prompting a traffic stop.
The deputy said Mondragon was the only person in the car when he noticed 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 emits from the dead animal.”
It wasn’t until four nights later when officials arrested Mondragon for allegedly violating his probation for battery and indecent exposure and for violating his risk protection order.
Using several search warrants for Mondragon’s car, home, cellphone, and social media accounts, officials found a photo on the suspect’s phone of him allegedly holding the dead duck with its chest sliced open and another photo of a dead raccoon on the floor of his car.
Further investigations revealed Mondragon’s “disturbing fascination” with real and fictitious school shooters — namely Tate Langdon, the character based on the Columbine High School massacre from the television series “American Horror Story.”
Authorities also allegedly found text messages from Mondragon’s phone 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.
Fox 13 News reports that Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said during a Friday press conference that Mondragon had made numerous computer searches about old school shootings, which makes him fearful that Mondragon may have been planning one himself.
“He fits every classification that it’s coming,” Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said during a press conference Friday, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “We’ve been lucky, and luck is not a strategy.”
Fox 13 News reports Andrew Coffey, Mondragon’s attorney, said Mondragon “had a troubled and traumatic childhood,” adding he was the child victim of a crime awaiting trial, but he declined to give specifics.
Sheriff Gregory Tony held a press conference this morning to announce a significant arrest by BSO’s Threat Management Unit (TMU).
Click here to watch the full press conference: https://t.co/FDLdfZCzy0
Click here to read the news release:https://t.co/P69FVvO410 pic.twitter.com/KuUJPaNFun
— Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) September 2, 2022
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