BSO: Man faces charges after leaving dead animals at Parkland memorial
MIAMI - A Broward man is facing multiple charges for leaving dead animals on a memorial in Parkland.
The Broward Sheriff's Office said Robert Mondragon, 29, also showed a "disturbing fascination with mass school shootings."
Mondragon is currently being held without bond on charges of removing or disfiguring a tomb or monument, violation of probation for battery and indecent exposure and violation of a risk protection order.
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony told CBS4's Peter D'Oench, "We can not allow this individual or anyone who fits this mold into our community or to go back into our community and prey upon children. There are too many active shooters out there on the streets, We can not allow this individual to come back into society and introduce violence and we hope that he doesn't shoot up a school and we hope he gets the mental treatment that he needs. This individual was on our radar going back to 2013 and was the subject of an investigation by the Threat Management Unit. This individual had an alarming amount of inquiries on the internet about actual shooting events such as Columbine and was looking at ways to develop pipe bombs and kill officers."
Detectives said on July 20, a school crossing guard discovered a dead duck with its chest cavity cut open on a bench at the MSD Memorial Garden, located outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Then, on July 21, the school crossing guard found a dead raccoon on the same memorial bench, and on July 31, a deputy found a dead opossum on the bench.
BSO said surveillance video links Mondragon to the dead animals.
Detectives said they would later find a photo on Mondragon's phone of him holding a dead duck with its chest cavity cut open. Also, another photo on his phone of a dead raccoon on the floorboard of the passenger's side of his vehicle.
Further investigation revealed Mondragon's obsession with school shooters, both real and fictional, BSO said.
Detectives 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 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."
A woman who lives near the suspect in Margate shared cell phone video with CBS4 of BSO deputies at the home and said "The animals in this case and the sadness in the story behind the bench, why did he do that. It is sickening to me."