![]() When his dog died after eating a poisonous toad, he went on a killing spree against the amphibians. When he was 9, a parent called police after he hit her child in the head with a rock. ![]() She sometimes locked his video game console in her car as punishment - and Cruz at least once broke a window to get it back.īut Cruz’s behavior was often strange and sometimes violent. He loved online, often violent video games, but hated losing - that’s what caused him to destroy TVs and damage walls. Cruz’s mental health treatments weren’t fully covered by insurance. In either case, she had expenses other parents didn’t. She padlocked the refrigerator so her sons couldn’t eat without permission and kept it so poorly stocked neighbors gave her groceries.įriends gave conflicting testimony over whether Lynda Cruz really was financially strapped or had wealth she didn’t want to spend. One friend said her monthly electric bill was $80, a fraction of what the owner of a large South Florida home typically pays. Unemployed, she became paranoid about spending, keeping her air conditioners’ thermostats in the 80s (25 to 30 Celsius) and unplugging unused appliances. That left Lynda Cruz alone in her mid-50s with two sons who would have challenged a much younger couple. Nikolas started seeing psychiatrists and psychologists at age 3 and didn’t fully talk or become potty trained until 4.Īt 5, just as Cruz entered kindergarten, he witnessed his father suffer a fatal heart attack in the family’s den. He was anxious, fell when he ran and couldn’t use utensils. Neighbors and teachers testified he hit and bit other children and didn’t socialize. She was just the happiest I ever saw.”īut by preschool, Cruz showed extreme behavior. ![]() She would go and get him all these sailor outfits. So once she got Nikolas, she felt like her family was complete,” friend Trish Davaney-Westerlind testified. Lynda Cruz “had wanted a child, always wanted a child. Roger Cruz, then 61, owned a successful marketing business. Lynda Cruz, who turned 50 shortly after adopting Nikolas, was a stay-at-home mom. They adopted Nikolas at birth in 1998 and, in 2000, Zachary, who had a different birth father. The SunSentinel reports that her lawyer, Brian Reidy said everyone has “hit the fear button” and that he doesn’t “blame a kid for taking a weapon to school, quite frankly, these days.” _Īssociated Press writer Gary Fineout in Tallahassee contributed to this report.The defense wants to show that from Cruz’s birth to a hard-drinking, crack-smoking Fort Lauderdale prostitute, he never fully received needed help even as he grew increasingly out of control.Īnd nowhere was that more apparent than in the home Roger and Lynda Cruz built in Parkland, an upscale Fort Lauderdale suburb. Mollica separately imposed a $12,500 bail Wednesday on a Stoneman Douglas student who officials say pulled a small knife on a boy she accused of harassing her and a friend. Arreaza represents 15-year-old Anthony Borges, who was shot five times in the Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people.Īrreaza had claimed the two offices have a conflict because both signed a 2016 agreement along with county school and law enforcement officials aimed at handling school disciplinary issues without involving law enforcement. Meanwhile, a judge rejected an attempt to remove Broward County prosecutors and its public defender from the Nikolas Cruz criminal case.Ĭircuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer said in an order dated Wednesday that attorney Alex Arreaza lacks legal standing to make such a motion. Nikolas Cruz will plead guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder if prosecutors will waive the death penalty, his attorney has said. Lynda Cruz died in November and their father died some years earlier. Both were adopted at very young ages by Roger and Lynda Cruz. They shared the same biological mother but had different fathers. Zachary and Nikolas, 19, both attended Stoneman Douglas. “They must be assured that every necessary step is being taken to increase safety and ensure no unauthorized people are allowed on campus.” “Parents, students and teachers have recently endured one of the worst tragedies in Florida history,” Scott said. An unspecified number of deputies, some armed with rifles, were added after the school reopened. Before the shooting, the school was patrolled by one armed deputy and unarmed guards. The troopers will be stationed at the school indefinitely, along with Broward County deputies, leaving an armed guard at every campus entrance point, Scott said in a statement.
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