The violent history of the suspected Florida high school shooter, Nikolas Cruz, has now been revealed following the murder of 17 people, as law enforcement agencies try to build up a profile of the 19-year-old.
Years before the massacre at Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School on February 14, 2018, Cruz was already known to authorities, for his volatile nature, with his mother, Lynda Cruz, making most of the calls, according to documents obtained by CNN.
Some of Cruz’s incidents are as recent as September 2016 and described the teenager as suffering from mental illness, being ’emotionally handicapped’ and being placed on behavioural medication.
One of the reports mentions how Cruz ‘has mentioned in the past that he would like to purchase a firearm’.
There are more than 30 reports, dating back to at least 2011, which detail the extent of Cruz’s behaviour – as well as his younger brother.
Prosecutors are using this information as they prepare to convict Nikolas for 17 counts of premeditated murder at the Florida high school where he was once a student.
Cruz was expelled from Marjory Douglas Stoneman due to behavioural and disciplinary issues, report the Sun Sentinel and despite his record, he was still able to pass America’s ‘stringent’ background checks and purchase an AR-15 assault rifle, which was allegedly used to carry out last week’s atrocities.
Records indicate police in Florida had previously visited the Cruz household due to domestic disputes – with his mother Lynda, who passed away last November, making the calls about a son who was out of control even as an adolescent.
Emergency calls received by the police include incidents classed as ‘mentally ill person’, ‘child/elderly abuse’, ‘domestic disturbance’ and ‘missing person’. At least of two calls made in 2012 and 2013 reported Cruz as missing, report CNN.
Back in November, just days before the 2012 incident, Lynda called the police to report Nikolas had hit her with the plastic hose of a vacuum cleaner.
According to CNN, the majority of police visits and calls made did not result in any ‘paperwork’ being filed. The few which have been filed detail Cruz’s multiple outbursts.
Records also show Lynda called the police again to their home in Florida on January 15, 2013. According to the report she’d taken Nikolas’ Xbox ‘privileges’ away after he refused to go into school – this made him angry and he responded by throwing ‘a chair, dog bowl and a drinking glass across the room’. He also used obscene and vulgar language towards her.
Lynda had told the police her son had a ‘history of developmental and learning disabilities’, was ‘increasingly irate’ and suffered from ADHD. He was placed in handcuffs and sat in the back of a police car as they interviewed his mother.
Nina Barela, a support counsellor from the Henderson Behavioral Health facility, where Cruz was a client, arrived at the home to give him ‘his prescribed medication’. He soon ‘began to calm down and cooperated’.
The report states Barela advised how it was not necessary to put Cruz in custody as he ‘did not make any threats of harm to him or others’.
Following the horrific tragedy at his former high school, according to the Sun Sentinel, Cruz’s defence team want to enter a guilty plea in exchange for life in prison instead of facing the death penalty.
