It has been reported that the brother of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz was committed to a mental facility in the wake of the shooting.
According to the NY Post, Zachary Cruz was removed from the home he has been living in and involuntarily committed to the facility under Florida’s Baker Act, which states that a person can be held involuntarily for up to 12 hours for an involuntary psychiatric exam.
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A separate report from The Daily Mail reveals, however, that the involuntary commitment may have been due to false reports that Zachary would “finish what his older brother started.”
Zachary and Nikolas are not biological siblings. They are adoptive brothers, whose mother passed away in 2017.
According to reports, Nikolas and his younger brother Zachary moved in with 42-year-old Rocxanne Deschamps shortly after their mother Lynda Cruz died on Nov. 1 after getting the flu and battling pneumonia.
Deschamps had previously been their neighbor in Parkland, Florida but moved to Lake Worth.
Per the Daily Mail, Deschamps told law enforcement that Nikolas moved out after she told him that she would not allow him to bring guns in her house. After that, she says, he moved back to Parkland to live with a friend.
Zachary has continued to live with Deschamps and will reportedly turn 18 in February.
Nikolas Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, one for each of the students and adults he shot to death Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
The gun store owners who sold Cruz an AR-15 recently spoke out, saying that the 19-year-old “fell through the cracks.”
Michael and Lisa Morrison own Sunrise Tactical Supply, the store where Cruz purchased the weapon he used to carry out the shooting. On Thursday, their lawyer Douglas Rudman spoke to the press in front of the business.
Rudman told reporters that his clients sold “a lawful weapon to someone who was mentally ill.”
“Someone who fell through the cracks. Someone who was not held accountable for their actions when they were expelled from school. Someone who was not put into any sort of database and someone who was essentially allowed to go unchecked before walking into this store and purchasing a firearm,” Rudman added.
Cruz reportedly purchased only the gun from the shop and no additional ammunition or modifications.
“It is for that reason that no red flags were raised,” Rudman added. “It seems like Mr. Cruz made a deliberate attempt to not draw suspicion by not buying too many things from one place.”
While filling out necessary paperwork for buying a gun, Cruz reportedly answered “no” to a question that asked about past mental health institutionalization. This was a lie, as he had previously been a facility seeking treatment for mental health issues.
