Florida man, 29, with terrifying facial tattoos is arrested for leaving multiple dead animals at memorial to victims of 2018 Parkland school massacre in honor of Nikolas Cruz
- Robert Mondragon, 29, is being held without bail in Broward County, Florida
- Police say he left a series of dead animals at memorial for Parkland victims
- Mondragon was allegedly obsessed with school shootings across the country
- His facial tattoos resemble those of fictional shooter Tate Langdon in AHS
A Florida man with terrifying face tattoos who appears morbidly obsessed with school shootings has been charged with leaving multiple dead animals at a memorial for the 17 victims of the Parkland school massacre, officials said Friday.
Robert Mondragon, 29, is being held without bail on three felony charges of defacing a monument after allegedly leaving the animal carcasses outside Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Broward County sheriff’s investigators described Mondragon as an aspiring school shooter who obsessively researched prior shootings and retraced Parkland shooter Nicholas Cruz’s steps outside the Parkland school.
Police said that Mondragon’s macabre facial tattoos resemble those of the fictional Tate Langdon school shooter character in the first season of American Horror Story, which was inspired by the real-life massacre at Columbine High School.
Robert Mondragon, 29, is being held without bail after allegedly leaving the animal carcasses outside Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Police say Mondragon was obsessed with school shootings and on three occasions, left dead animals at the community memorial (above) to the victims of the 2018 Parkland shooting
In the first incident on the night of July 20, police say Mondragon put a dead, cut open duck on the bench that is part of the memorial garden outside the Parkland school commemorating the victims of the February 14, 2018, massacre.
The next night, Mondragon left a dead raccoon on the bench, and on July 31 he left a dead opossum, investigators said.
After he was identified as a suspect, a deputy pulled him over and found blood and feathers in his car. He allegedly told the deputy he had been keeping a dead bird in his car because he liked the smell.
Mondragon was arrested August 5, and is also being held for violating probation on an earlier conviction for battery and indecent exposure.
In the earlier case, he was convicted of approaching a woman and exposing himself and biting a police officer who responded.
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said at 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.
Police said that Mondragon’s macabre facial tattoos resemble those of the fictional Tate Langdon school shooter character in the first season of American Horror Story (above)
Cops say that Mondragon walked the same path that Nickolas Cruz (seen on Friday) took as he attempted to escape after killing 17 people in 2018
Mondragon’s online research included searches for how to break into steel doors, pipe bombs, prior school shooters, and shootings involving multiple victims, the sheriff said..
‘He fits every classification that it’s coming,’ Tony said, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. ‘We’ve been lucky, and luck is not a strategy.’
Tony said video shows Mondragon would ‘literally walk the same path as the previous shooter’ in Parkland, following the path Cruz took from the high school to a nearby Walmart after killing 17 people.
Court records show that Mondragon has been held separately from other inmates in the county jail due to ‘pervasive and continuing mental health issues.’
Tony called him the ‘most severe individual we’ve been able to apprehend and take off the streets.’
State records show that in 2018, authorities seized guns from Mondragon under the state’s so-called red flag law.
A memorial to the victims is seen outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
That law, adopted after the Stoneman Douglas shootings, allows law enforcement to seek a judge’s permission to seize firearms from people who can be shown to be a danger to themselves or others.
The order in Mondragon’s case cited nine separate incidents over the course of several years, including a 2014 incident in which he sewed his own mouth shut with a needle and thread.
The protection order also describes Mondragon’s social media posts referencing ‘pulling a Columbine,’ an apparent reference to the infamous 1999 school massacre in Colorado.
Andrew Coffey, Mondragon’s attorney, said Mondragon ‘had a troubled and traumatic childhood.’
He said Mondragon was the child victim of a crime that is now awaiting trial, but he declined to give specifics.
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