(PARKLAND, FL)- A Margate man with a disturbing past has been taken into custody after Broward investigators say he placed animal carcasses on a memorial to the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting.
29 year old Robert Zildjian Mondragon was arrested by Broward Sheriff’s deputies and is facing numerous charges.
The BSO investigation opened on July 20th when a school crossing guard discovered a duck with its chest cut open on a bench at the memorial.
11 days later, the same crossing guard found a dead raccoon on the bench and then on July 31st a sheriff’s deputy found a dead possum there.
Detectives reviewing surveillance footage from the area saw a white Nissan Sentra pull up to the memorial on the night of July 30th and the male driver spent several minutes there before leaving.
The following night a BSO deputy patrolling the area spotted a vehicle matching the description of the car in the video and conducted a traffic stop.
Mondragon was the lone occupant of the vehicle and the deputy observed bird feathers and blood on the front passenger side floorboard.
According to BSO, 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.”
He was placed under arrest on August 4th.
The investigation into Mondragon revealed a number of disturbing discoveries including a fascination with school shootings and photos on his phone of him holding dead and mutilated animals.
His internet search history turned up queries about school shooters and pipe bombs and more disturbingly, Mondragon was said to have walked the same path taken by confessed Parkland killer Nikolas Cruz between MSD High School and the nearby Walmart he fled to after killing 17 people in 2018.
Mondragon is being held without bond at the North Broward detention center on multiple charges including disfiguring a tomb or monument, violation of probation and violation of a risk protection order
He was on probation for several counts of battery and indecent exposure.