Brother calls Parkland shooter ‘fragile person’
Zachary Cruz making plans for new life in Virginia with help of civil rights group after his own arrests.
GREENACRES — Zachary Cruz, brother of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz, said Sunday that while growing up, his brother could be a “very fragile person.”
“When we were younger, we used to fight a lot,” Zachary Cruz, 18, said. “But as we got older and became teenagers, we made amends and came to terms with each other and accepted that we were both different.”
Zachary Cruz made the statements as he was making last-minute plans to move from Palm Beach County to Virginia, a move allowed by a judge on Friday.
While Zachary Cruz was in jail, his two dogs — a mixed golden retriever named Mazie, and a fox terrier mix named Colby — stayed at VCA Simmons Animal Hospital in Greenacres. Zachary Cruz picked them up Sunday morning so he could make the 13-hour drive with them to Virginia.
Cruz said Mazie has been his dog for 15 years and that Colby belongs to Nikolas. While living together, Zachary Cruz said he and Nikolas acted like regular
brothers.
“We got along (as teenagers) in the household, we would go out and hang at the pool, walk the dogs, and we used to do normal brother stuff together at home,” Zachary Cruz said.
But Zachary Cruz said he feels like he acted “too hard” on Nikolas, and said he sometimes bullied him. Nikolas killed 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.
“(Nikolas) is a very fragile person and my mom was always there for him,” Cruz said.
Their mother, Lynda Cruz, and father adopted the boys at birth. Their father died 13 years ago, while Lynda died from pneumonia Nov. 1. According to Nikolas Cruz’s attorneys, he was saddened by the loss of family members.
On May 11, Judge Melinda Brown set the terms of Zachary Cruz’s six-month probation that allows him to live out of state, live in a rentfree apartment and work a $13-an-hour job with benefits.
He will move to Staunton, Va., a city close to the headquarters of Nexus Services, a pro bono civil rights organization that is funding Cruz’s relocation.
On March 19, Zachary Cruz was arrested on the Stoneman Douglas campus for trespassing.
Authorities said it was at least the third time he was spotted on the campus after the mass shooting even though he was not a student at the school.
Zachary Cruz told deputies at the time of his arrest that he went to the school “to reflect” on the shootings. Broward County initially held him on a $500,000 bail because prosecutors said he showed the “same red flags” as his brother.
Zachary Cruz was arrested again May 1 in Palm Beach County for violating his probation, after he was spotted 25 feet away from Park Vista High School near Boynton Beach and accused of driving without a valid driver’s license.
When Zachary Cruz was released from the Broward County Jail on May 3, he was kicked out of his residence by family friend Rocxanne Deschamps. Zachary Cruz has been living at the Lantana-area mobile home with Deschamps since last fall — after the death of his mother.
Nikolas Cruz had lived with Deschamps as well, but only for a few weeks after the Nov. 1 death of his mother. Nikolas Cruz wanted to bring a gun into her home, and she refused. He would leave to move in with another family, where he lived until the February shootings.
Deschamps reported Zachary Cruz’s probation violation to the Broward County Sheriff ’s Office on April 27.
“We didn’t have a good relationship,” Zachary Cruz said of Deschamps during a testimony on May 11. Cruz was living in an undisclosed hotel since his eviction.
Michael Donovan, who works for Nexus, said the company is asking Judge Brown to start an investigation into how the Broward County Sheriff ’s Office treated Cruz while in jail, alleging that his constitutional rights were violated.
“Police think they can make their own rules and no one wins,” Donovan said. “BSO completely failed to step in when Zachary’s brother was crying out for help. They have to find out how to actually do that job ... and violating people’s civil rights isn’t the way to do it.”
Donovan said the woman Zachary Cruz will be living with, Terri Ann Johnson, is a great mentor because her brother was also convicted in a Virginia mass shooting incident where 20 people were shot. Johnson’s brother didn’t kill anyone, but he did end up in prison, according to Nexus.
“When she heard (Zachary’s) case it spoke to her,” Donovan said. “This kid is remarkably well-adjusted considered with what he’s been through. I believe he is going to be a great success ... he has a story to tell that can really hopefully change the way isolated, disenfranchised kids are treated in the school system.”
While in Virginia, Zachary Cruz’s probation will be managed through Broward County, Donovan said. He will be required to mail in a form, check in with his probation officer once a week, and have counseling once a week.
As for his new life in Virginia, Zachary Cruz said he wants to “live my life.”
“I want to just finish high school,” Zachary Cruz said. “After that, I want to do anything I want to do.”