Florida School Shooting: Couple Steals Teddy Bears: Police

PARKLAND, FL — An unemployed couple was arrested over the weekend for stealing teddy bears and pin wheels left outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to pay tribute to the victims of the Valentine's Day massacre at the school. Seventeen students and faculty members were killed when a gunman opened fire with an AR-15 assault rifle. Police did not say what the couple was planning to do with the items.

Michael Shawn Kennedy and Kara O'Neil were both charged with criminal mischief disfigurement of a tomb or monument in connection with the Sunday night incident.

Court documents said that the 37-year-old Kennedy and 40-year-old O'Neil were arrested at about 10:20 p.m. on Sunday night, one day after hundreds of thousands of people participated in the nationwide March For Your Lives event in Washington, D.C. and hundreds of satellite locations, including Parkland, San Francisco, New York and as far away as Paris.

"The witnesses advised they observed the defendant and co-defendant willfully and knowingly deface and remove monument items," according to the documents. "They were on the designated memorial for the 17 deceased Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victims."

The items were left on the school grounds and on the fencing area around the school, according to the documents.

"Several items from the memorial were in the defendant's rear seat including teddy bears, plaques and pin wheels," the documents said. "The defendant's vehicle was parked in the roadway blocking the right turn lane in front of the monument."

Police said that Kennedy of Hollywood, Florida and O'Neil of Fulton, New York, "maliciously intended" to damage the makeshift monument.

They are both being held in lieu of $1,000 bail.

Photo by Paul Scicchitano