Nikolas Cruz Caretaker Claims She Wanted to Stop His Gun Purchases but Police Said No

Rocxanne Deschamps, the woman who opened her home to Nikolas Cruz in November of 2017, opened up on Tuesday about how she had warned police of the confessed school shooter‘s violent tendencies.

Deschamps took in both of Cruz brothers at the end of last year after their mother passed away. Deschamps was a long-time family friend, and she allowed the boys to come and stay in her mobile home in Lake Worth, Florida, not far from Parkland. However, she reportedly had a problem with Nikolas Cruz, who committed one of the worst mass shootings in American history on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Deschamps spoke at a press conference in Manhattan on Tuesday, explaining how she had warned police on multiple occasions that the elder Cruz brother was on the brink of a violent outburst. According to a report by The New York Post, Deschamps had tried to stop Cruz from bringing his guns into her home with him. She said that she first realized he was amassing a small arsenal when she discovered a receipt for one of the firearms.

“I asked [the police] if we could stop him from getting the gun that he purchased,” she said. “They said they couldn’t stop him from buying or having possession of a gun. I told them that Nikolas was 19 years old but I felt that mentally and emotionally [he was] similar [to] a 12-year-old.”

She recalled another time when Cruz had dug a hole in her backyard, intending to bury his gun case. When she called the police, she said they told her “anyone was allowed to bury a gun.”

Finally, Deschamps called the police when Cruz got into a fight with her own adult son, Rock. Cruz reportedly fled the scene before police arrived, and she later put her foot down, giving him the ultimatum that “it was either going to be the gun or us. He couldn’t have both. He chose the gun,” she said.

Deschamps said that all of these calls were between Nov. 1, when Lynda Cruz passed away, and the end of that month, when Cruz went to live with his friend and the Snead family. She said that during that time, she “begged [Nikolas] to go to the doctor to get re-evaluated because his mother had passed away and he was very depressed.”

“I felt that he should get back on the medication that he had been refusing to take, but he declined to do that,” she said.

Deschamps was accompanied by her lawyer, Gloria Allred, who stopped her client from responding to questions about Lynda Cruz’s estate. The inheritance is reportedly worth over $800,000, and Deschamps has sought to be an administrator of it. She also didn’t let the mother discuss Cruz’s younger brother, Zachary, who was arrested on Monday for trespassing at Stoneman Douglas High.