$500K bail for brother of Fla. shooter

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PARKLAND, Fla. – The system that failed to protect the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School from admitted mass shooter Nikolas Cruz cannot afford to make the same mistake with his brother, a Broward prosecutor argued Tuesday.

Zachary Cruz, 18, poses the same threat as his older brother

Zachary Cruz appears in court via CCTV from the main jail for his first appearance on charges of trespassing on the grounds of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. – and his decision to trespass onto the Stoneman Douglas campus after school Monday is a warning sign that cannot be ignored, Assistant State Attorney Sarahnell Murphy said in court.

Weeks after his brother “murdered, injured and terrorized” the school, Zachary Cruz showed up on campus “with no legitimate purpose,” Murphy said. “He has all the same flags present as his brother.”

A judge set bond at $500,000 for Zachary and ordered a host of pretrial conditions more often seen in felony cases than Calendar ............ Classifieds ......... Comics ............ Crossword ....... Dear Abby ......... Forum .............. Nation ............

misdemeanors. And before he is released from jail, police are to search his caretaker’s home in Lantana and remove all firearms.

Nikolas Cruz is charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at the Parkland high school.

Zachary Cruz admitted to police on Monday that he rode his skateboard onto the campus, ignoring orders to stay away from the school, to reflect on what his brother had done, according to an arrest report.

Murphy said the late afternoon visit left the Stoneman Douglas community in fear, with some parents refusing to let their teenage children come back to the school on Tuesday. “They have again been terrorized,” she said.

At least one student at the school Tuesday said that the bail amount was excessive.

“I’m not worried about the Cruz family, “said Chris Donnelly, 17, a junior.

Murphy told Broward County Judge Kim Mollica that it would be irresponsible to treat the new case as a typical trespassing infraction.

“His mother and father are deceased, his brother is incarcerated,” Murphy said. “When he was arrested, he gave a Parkland address where he does not reside.”

She added that the guardian Cruz lives with in Lantana, Rocxanne Deschamps, was in New York when he was arrested Monday and had no idea how or why he went to the school.

If Cruz is able to post a bond, he will be fitted with an ankle monitor to track his movements, Mollica said.

He will not be allowed within a mile of Stoneman Douglas or within 500 feet of any school campus. He is not to enter Broward County except for court-related business.

Cruz would have to raise 10 percent of the bond amount to go free as he waits for his case to be resolved.

He did not speak during Tuesday’s hearing.

Defense lawyer Joseph Kimok objected to the bond amount, noting that a typical case of trespassing comes with a $25 bond.

Zachary Cruz “is being held because of who he is related to, not because of anything he did,” Kimok said. “The state has been seeking to make a show of this.”

Kimok and prosecutors declined to comment after the hearing.

The night of the shooting, Zachary Cruz told Deschamps, “I don’t want to be alive. I don’t want to deal with this stuff,” according to a report from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

Two days later, he told a deputy that he felt “somewhat responsible and guilty about the incident and that he could have possibly prevented (it),” that report said. He also told the deputy that he “doesn’t understand why his brother would have done this.”

Zachary Cruz was also committed for mental health treatment under the Baker Act after the shooting, Murphy said during Tuesday’s hearing.

Since his arrest Monday, Murphy said, Zachary Cruz has had contact in jail with his brother.

“He has been heard and observed discussing how popular his brother is now. That his face is everywhere and his name is national,” she said.

Murphy said there has been a discussion about starting a pen pal or fan club and the fact that Nikolas Cruz is capable of attracting a lot of girls.

Some students say they think it’s frightening that Zachary Cruz allegedly trespassed on the school campus three times since the massacre.

“That’s crazy,” said Josef Bagiv, 16, a junior. “Just weird.”

Conner Gandy, 17, a senior, said Zachary Cruz should have at least warned people before he visited the school. His showing up “frightens everyone,” figuring how depressed he might be, he said.

“It’s weird and suspicious, but I don’t think he would do anything,” he said.

John Mansfield, 17, a junior, said perhaps Zachary Cruz was trying to make sense of the tragedy.

“I think he’s trying to understand like everyone else,” he said.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office said Zachary Cruz rode his skateboard at 4:30 p.m. across the campus, surpassing “all locked doors and gates” to get onto the campus, the arrest report said. It was after school hours. The school day ends at 2:40 p.m.

Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said the school’s gates are opened after hours so students can go in and out for after-school activities. During school hours the gates are locked, Runcie said. “It wasn’t some breach of security,” he told the Sun Sentinel on Monday.

The younger Cruz spent less than 10 minutes on the campus after entering the north gate, the same gate his brother entered on the day of the shooting, and exiting at a gate near the front entrance.

“It’s kind of odd, and I understand it does creep people out,” Runcie said.

Some parents said they are dissatisfied with the school district’s answers to safety concerns raised since the shooting, pointing to the failure to address Cruz’s mental health issues and the trespassing by his brother.

At the city of Parkland’s Education Advisory Board on Monday, board member Wayne Alder called for Runcie and all school board members to resign “so that proper leadership in the district can take place.”

He said the district failed to properly investigate warning signs that Nikolas Cruz was a danger.

He accused the district of failing to report possible criminal activity involving Cruz.

Students have said they told authorities that Cruz brought ammunition and knives to school, but there’s no indication of such incidents on disciplinary reports.

“How many other ticking time bombs are left undetected?” asked Alder, whose daughter attends Westglades Middle School. “We don’t know and the district doesn’t know. It happened in Parkland this time. Where else is it going to happen?”

Early Tuesday, a helicopter from the Broward Sheriff’s Office was circling above Stoneman Douglas as students were preparing for the school day.