Mother let Parkland shooting suspect buy guns, officials say

SUNRISE, Fla. — Mental health counselors told the mother of Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz she shouldn’t let him buy guns, but she ignored their concerns and he began compiling an arsenal before her death last year, officials said Tuesday.

Lynda Cruz was “an enabler” who interfered with efforts to get her son treatment, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, chairman of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, told members.

About a year before the attack, Nikolas Cruz was 18 and living with his mother when he legally bought the AR-15 authorities say was used in the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 people. He bought other guns before and after her November death from pneumonia.

“If he wants to have a gun, he could have a gun,” Gualtieri said Lynda Cruz told his counselors. Cruz’s father died when he was young.

Gualtieri told members that school and mental health counselors had at least 140 contacts with Nikolas Cruz over the years trying to get him help, but his mother frequently interfered. He did not go into specifics. Similar complaints were made about the mother of Adam Lanza, who killed 26 at a Connecticut elementary school in 2012 after killing her. Nancy Lanza bought guns for her 20-year-old son. The commission is scheduled to discuss Cruz’s mental health treatment Thursday. Because those records are protected by federal and state law, the sessions will be closed.

Zachary Cruz, the suspect’s younger brother, told The Miami Herald in May that Nikolas Cruz pointed a rifle at him and their mother in separate events, but they didn’t call police either time.

School and government records obtained by The Associated Press and other media shortly after the shooting show Nikolas Cruz was diagnosed as developmentally delayed at age 3 and had disciplinary issues dating to middle school. In February 2014, while in eighth grade, Cruz was transferred to a school for children with emotional and behavioral issues. He stayed until 10th grade, when he was transferred to Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

About a year before the attack, Cruz was kicked out of the school after he harassed other students, had outbursts, fought and had numerous other issues.

Cruz is charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder. His attorneys have said he would plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence without parole. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.