Authorities Were Called To Alleged Florida School Shooter Nikolas Cruz's House More Than 35 Times

[sunonmars]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/briannasacks/authorities-were-called-to-alleged-florida-school-shooter

On Sept. 28, 2016, the Broward County Sheriff's Office in Florida responded to a 911 call about an 18-year-old who had been fighting with his mom.

Nikolas Cruz and his mother, Lynda, had been fighting over paperwork needed for the high school student to get an ID card, the officer's report states. It goes on to detail how the teen had been harming himself and had talked about buying a gun.

He suffers from mental illness, the deputy noted, and a therapist and an investigator from the Department of Children & Families were also on the scene.

"He has been cutting his arms, his mother said, to get attention, as he learned it from an ex-girlfriend," the report says. "He has mentioned in the past that he would like to purchase a firearm."

However, Jared Bienenfeld, a therapist with Henderson Mental Health, "deemed Nikolas to be no threat to anyone or himself at this present time," according to the report.

The deputy and investigator "saw no signs of mental illness or criminal activity and left without incident," the report concludes.

From 2010 until November 2016, Broward County Sheriff deputies responded to at least 36 emergency 911 calls from a pleasant-looking, tree-lined suburban home on 80th Terrace street, in Parkland, where Nikolas Cruz lived with his younger brother, Zachary, and mother, Lynda, who died last November at the age of 68.

However, despite the repeated calls to authorities for disturbing behavior, Nikolas Cruz had never been arrested until this Valentine's Day, when he took an Uber to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, pulled an AR-15 from a black duffle bag, and began gunning down former classmates and teachers, killing at least 17 people.

After concealing himself among the crowd of terrified students fleeing campus, Cruz went to Subway to buy a drink and then to McDonald's before authorities caught him in a nearby neighborhood. The 19-year-old has admitted to being the shooter and faces 17 counts of premeditated murder.

He purchased his gun legally last year, officials said.

[Throck]

1. Mental health background history?

Why wasn't his mental health history linked to his federal background check to purchase the gun?

[Lee-Lee]

3. Because nobody did the right thing and acted- especially parents

His mom is dead so can’t explain, but I will be willing to bet she fits the same pattern I have seen over and over again with parents of teens like this.

She didn’t want him “labeled” or “in the system” so she did all she could to shelter him. That many calls for service tonteh address is a huge red flag there are problems, but more often than not Parents resist seeking the proper level of care for teens like this because they think they are protecting them or helping them.

But then suddenly the person turns 18 and the parents no longer have the same legal rights or ability to make sure that care is given, because now the person is an adult and it’s a far harder thing to make an adult get treatment against their will.

And the cops of DSS/CPS can only go so far if the parent isn’t on board or doesn’t tell them the whole story.

I’ve seen parents hide everything from sexual assaults on siblings to a teen attempting to attempts by a 14 year old to repeatedly stab the Mom- they had gone so far as to put padlocks on the drawers in the kitchen to lock away knives but they refused to get serious professional help because the daughter was just “going through rough times” and “misunderstood but we can manage her” and they “didn’t want to put her in the system and have her labeled for life.” The one from that last example finally got the right help after she was caught stabbing the neighbors dog.

The parents too often protect the child to the detriment of society.

Then the schools- he was expelled from multiple schools it seems. But schools don’t care about any kind of follow on or passing a case on to see that students they expel get follow up care or treatment for the behavioral issues that led to the expulsion- they just consider the kid “not our problem anymore” when they get expelled.

Background checks are only as good as the database that is used. That database can only include the data available. And if the person never gets the right care or evaluations because either parents resist it or people like schools don’t care enough to see that it happens then there is no record of the persons problems. No record means no data for the database.

It’s a problem seen over and over in these cases. Adam Lanzas Mom shielded him from the system. James Homes who did theater shooting in Colorado saw a mental health professional and told her he wanted to kill people but she didn’t act on that information because “he did give me a specific plan” and just let him walk out.

[B2G]

7. Excellent post. Thanks. nt

[Justice]

15. What would have happened if Mom did speak with police?

That is the real issue. Basically, not much. Then he would go home to Mom again, only he'd be really angry at her.

Also where is younger brother?

Also Broward County superintendent said he wasn't expelled, he was moved to another school that could better address his needs. Just fyi. Seems as if the schools were talking with each other.

[Lee-Lee]

16. Mom should have sought proper care for him before he turned 18

When he is a minor it’s much easier to have him involuntarily committed and get a real diagnosis for him, that should have included transmission of that information to NICS.

After he was 18 she still could have worked with LE to have him involuntarily committed, although it would have been more difficult.

That many calls for service to the home involving him would be more than enough for a 72 hour involuntary commitment for evaluation before or after he turned 18.

[hunter]

23. How about Las Vegas? The problem is gun's.

This nation has a gun problem.

Unstable people are attracted to the prevailing gun culture.

Gun culture should not be normalized. Gun ownership should not be normalized.

Fuck the second amendment.

Gun fetishes are disgusting.

[hack89]

5. Because you have to be adjudicated mentally unfit

if a judge had had him involuntarily committed then he would not have been able to buy a gun.

[inwiththenew]

12. His therapist didn't think he was a threat

This case is shinning example of warning signs ignored. Most active shooters cases are save for maybe the Vegas one. Either way, it ultimately is on the shooter himself but if the Baker act was used in this case he likely wouldn't have been able to purchase a gun.

[B2G]

14. Where did you read that he had a therapist?

I haven't seen anything to that effect.

[mythology]

19. It was in the excerpt. A therapist found him not to be a risk

[forthemiddle]

18. You would have to suspend HIPAA

Some of the most stringent of the laws are about Mental Health, and STDs, to protect the patient. So in order for background checks to find out the true state of someone’s health HIPAA laws would need to be drastically changed.
Are we OK with that?

[Lee-Lee]

24. The law already allows for mental health professionals to report to NICS

There are protections and due process rights that go along with it.

The issue is that often the mental health professionals don’t do it. James Holmes, who shot up the theater in Colorado, was telling his psychiatrist he was having homicidal thoughts and wanted to kill people multiple times over the course of several weeks. She didn’t report this to anyone because she didn’t think she needed to because he didn’t name specific people or plans.

[FarCenter]

2. I would have the mother exhumed and autopsied

[LisaL]

4. Mother reportedly died from complications of flu.

[FarCenter]

9. I'd still want a full autopsy with toxicology studies

"His mom, Lynda Cruz, just passed away a little over three months ago at the age of 68 from pneumonia. Lynda’s cousin, Kathie Blaine, clarified with ABC News that she died from flu complications. She was healthy until she checked into a clinic for the flu and then was rushed to the hospital. She later died of pneumonia."

https://heavy.com/news/2018/02/nikolas-cruz-parents-roger-lynda-cruz-mom-dad-family-photo/

That's very early in the flu season. Was flu confirmed by diagnostic testing, or is that a clinic's guess? How was pneumonia diagnosed?

Of course, by now she may have been cremated?

[Louis1895]

6. Such a sad story

Nicholas Cruz was adopted when his parents were in their 50s. Lynda Cruz died when Nikolas was 18, so now an adult and on his own. He probably did not have a support system until the family he lived with opened their home to him. Lynda Cruz parented Nikolas and his brother from 2004-2017 - 13 years!

I wonder how his younger brother is doing.

[B2G]

8. So he wasn't adopted until he was 6?

I thought he was adopted at birth. But his younger brother was also adopted, so that made no sense to me.

If he was adopted at that age, what were his first 5 years like? Could explain a lot.

[csziggy]

10. Washington Post gives a different timeline

Cruz was adopted at age 2 along with his 2-month-old brother, Zachary, by Lynda and Roger Cruz, friends and relatives said. Relatives said Nikolas and Zachary shared a biological mother but have different fathers.

Their adoptive father died of a heart attack when they were young, leaving Lynda to raise the two boys on her own.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/fla-shooting-suspect-had-a-history-of-explosive-anger-depression-killing-animals/2018/02/15/06f05710-1291-11e8-9570-29c9830535e5_story.html?utm_term=.5df80c6adbac

New York Times says his adoptive father died in 2004:

He spent much of it in a subdivision called Pine Tree Estates, on a lush, narrow street dotted with tropical plants and the occasional driveway basketball hoop. Mr. Cruz and his brother, Zachary, had been adopted, and were raised largely by their mother, Lynda Cruz, especially after their father, Roger P. Cruz, died suddenly in 2004 at the age of 67. Ms. Cruz died in November, and people who knew Nikolas said he had taken the loss hard.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/us/nikolas-cruz-florida-shooting.html

So Cruz was adopted about 2000, his adoptive father died in 2004 when he was 4-5 years old, and his adoptive mother died last fall.

[B2G]

11. Thanks, that makes more sense.

Would be interesting to know what his first 2 years were like prior to his adoption. A lot of development happens in those years, including the ability to form human attachments.

[Nonhlanhla]

20. Yes, I also think those firs 2 years might be the key

Very young children who do not receive love can often develop attachment disorders. It's one of the potential issues adoptive parents might need to deal with in adoptees.

It looks like this young man was a mess from day 1.

[B2G]

21. It's just speculation, but

I have seen several posts on Twitter speculating that based on his facial characteristics, he may have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

[Louis1895]

13. Sorry, I wasn't clear

I was trying to make a comment while rushing to start working.

I meant to say his adoptive mother parented him since 2004 (when her husband died) until her death.

Thanks to others here that stepped in and clarified my earlier post.

Bottom line: This is so, so, sad.

[B2G]

22. No worries, thanks! nt

[moondust]

17. A neighbor was interviewed on TV

and said he knew somebody had moved out next door because the police stopped making their rather frequent visits to the place.

[Aristus]

25. "Sorry, Ma'am. He's white! Ain't nuttin' we can do 'bout that.

Now if'n he was a neegra, we could blast holes right th'ew him, no problem."

[Crunchy Frog]

26. And Freedumb prevailed.