Nikolas Jacob Cruz (born September 24, 1998) is an American mass shooter who perpetrated the Parkland high school shooting, one of the deadliest school shootings in the United States. On February 14, 2018, Cruz killed seventeen people, including fourteen students and three staff members, while injuring seventeen others, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. In November 2022, Cruz was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. It remains the deadliest high school shooting by a lone shooter in the United States.
Cruz had been known for his behavioral problems since preschool, and as a teenager on social media, he shared his obsessions with mass shootings and expressed racist, sexist, antisemitic, xenophobic, and homophobic views. He was a member of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. He legally purchased various firearms before the shooting.
Early life Cruz was born to Brenda Norma Woodard (June 25, 1956 – August 23, 2021) on September 24, 1998, in Margate, Florida. Woodard was described as a career criminal who had once been arrested for attempting to buy crack cocaine while pregnant with her son. His biological father's identity is unknown. Nikolas was placed in an orphanage after his birth and was adopted by Roger and Lynda Cruz. Both adoptive parents died before Cruz finished high school: Roger died at age 67 on August 11, 2004; and Lynda at age 68 on November 1, 2017. Cruz was fully orphaned three months before the shooting. Since his adoptive mother's death, he had been living with relatives and friends.
Cruz was a member of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps and had received multiple awards including academic achievement for "maintaining an A grade in JROTC and Bs in other subjects", according to CNN. He was also a member of his school's varsity air rifle team. At the time of the shooting, he was enrolled in a GED program and employed at a local Dollar Tree.
Behavioral issues and social media Cruz had behavioral issues since preschool, and was eligible for special education services alongside an IEP. According to The Washington Post, he was "well known to school and mental health authorities and was entrenched in the process for getting students help rather than referring them to law enforcement". Psychiatrist Dr. Stephen E. Moskowitz diagnosed Cruz with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Cruz was transferred between schools (including Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School) six times in three years in an effort to deal with these problems. In 2014, he was transferred to a school for children with emotional or learning disabilities. There were reports that he made threats against other students.
Cruz returned to Stoneman Douglas High School two years later but was expelled in 2017 for disciplinary reasons. As he could not be expelled from the Broward County school system completely, he was transferred to alternative placement. The school administration had circulated an email to teachers, warning that Cruz had made threats against other students. The school banned him from wearing a backpack on campus.
Psychiatrists recommended an involuntary admission of Cruz to a residential treatment facility, starting in 2013. The Florida Department of Children and Families investigated him in September 2016 for Snapchat posts in which he cut both his arms and said he planned to buy a gun. At this time, a school resource officer suggested he undergo an involuntary psychiatric examination under the provisions of the Baker Act. Two guidance counselors agreed, but a mental institution did not. State investigators reported he had depression, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and had a history of attempting suicide. However, psychologist Frederick M. Kravitz later testified that Cruz was never diagnosed with autism. In their assessment, the investigators concluded he was "at low risk of harming himself or others". He had previously received mental health treatment, but had not received treatment in the year leading up to the shooting.
The school district conducted an assessment of the handling of Cruz. According to their redacted report, which was reviewed in August 2018 by The New York Times, The Daily Beast, and other media, a year before the shooting, Cruz had sought help from education specialists, as his grades at Stoneman Douglas were declining. He was an eighteen-year-old junior, and met with the specialists with his mother. The specialists recommended that he transfer to another school, Cross Creek School in Pompano Beach, where he had done well before, but he wanted to graduate with his class at Stoneman Douglas, and rejected this option, as a legal adult. He was advised that if he stayed, he would no longer be able to access special education services, but this was incorrect. A few months later, he withdrew because of failing grades. After that, Cruz requested to go to Cross Creek, but he was told a new assessment was needed, delaying action, and the request was denied.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel described Cruz's online profiles and accounts as "very, very disturbing". They contained pictures and posts of him with a variety of weapons, including long knives, a shotgun, a pistol, and a BB gun. Police said that he held "extremist" views; social media accounts that were thought to be linked to him contained anti-black and anti-Muslim slurs. YouTube comments linked to him include "I wanna die Fighting killing shit ton of people", and threats against police officers. Cruz idolized many different infamous mass murderers, such as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Seung-Hui Cho, James Eagan Holmes, and Elliot Rodger, and regularly researched well-known mass shootings by reading Wikipedia and watching documentaries.
In February 2017, Cruz legally purchased an AR-15–style semi-automatic rifle from a Coral Springs gun store, after having passed the required background check. Before the purchase, he had similarly obtained several other firearms, including at least one shotgun and several other rifles. At the time of the shooting, in Florida, it was legal for 18-year-olds to purchase firearms from federally licensed dealers, including the rifle allegedly used in the shooting. The minimum age requirement has since been raised to 21.
Items recovered by police at the scene included gun magazines with swastikas carved in them. One student claimed that Cruz had drawn a swastika and the words "I hate niggers" on his backpack. CNN reported that Cruz was in a private Instagram group chat where he expressed racist, antisemitic, xenophobic, and homophobic views. Cruz said that he hated "jews, niggers, immigrants" and frequently discussed the weapons that he owned. At one point, Cruz said "I think I am going to kill people" in the group chat, although he later claimed that he was joking.
A former classmate said Cruz had anger management issues and often joked about guns and gun violence, which included threats of shooting up establishments. The brother of a 2016 graduate said that Cruz was "super stressed out all the time and talked about guns a lot and tried to hide his face". A student who was enrolled at the school at the time of the shooting said, "I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him." A classmate who was assigned to work with him in sophomore year said, "He told me how he got kicked out of two private schools. He was held back twice. He had aspirations to join the military. He enjoyed hunting." A student's mother said that he also bragged about killing animals. A neighbor said his mother would call the police over to the house to try to talk some sense into him.
Earlier warnings to law enforcement Sheriff Scott Israel said that his office received 23 calls about Cruz during the previous decade. CNN used a public records request to obtain a sheriff's office log, which showed that from 2008 to 2017, at least 45 calls were made in reference to Cruz, his brother, or the family home combined. On , 2016, the calls included an anonymous tip that Cruz had threatened to shoot up the school, and a tip on , 2017, that he might be a "school shooter in the making" and that he collected knives and guns. On , 2016, a peer counselor notified the school resource officer of his suicide attempt and intent to buy a gun, and the school indicated it would do a "threat assessment".
In September 2016, three people—a sheriff's deputy who worked as a resource officer at Stoneman Douglas, and two of the school's counselors—stated that Cruz should be committed for mental evaluation.
On , 2017, a person with the username "nikolas cruz" posted a comment to a YouTube video that read, "Im going to be a professional school shooter." The person who uploaded the video to YouTube reported the comment to the FBI. According to agent Robert Lasky, the agency conducted database reviews but was unable to track down the individual who made the threatening comment.
On , 2018, less than two months before the shooting, the FBI received a tip on its Public Access Line from a person who was close to Cruz. On , two days after the shooting, the agency released a statement that detailed this information. According to the statement, "The caller provided information about Cruz's gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting." After conducting an investigation, the FBI said the tip line did not follow protocol when the information was not forwarded to the Miami Field Office, where investigative steps would have been taken. The FBI opened a probe into the tip line's operations.
The response by Sheriff Israel and other members of the Broward County Sheriff's Office to the numerous red flags and warnings about Cruz has been the subject of scrutiny. In the days following the shooting, calls for Israel's resignation intensified as more information that alluded to the department's inaction was revealed. Israel refused to resign in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, saying during an interview with CNN, "I've given amazing leadership to this agency" while denying responsibility for the actions of his deputies. This culminated in Governor Ron DeSantis removing Israel from his role as Sheriff and replacing him with Gregory Tony.
Parkland high school shooting
On February 14, 2018, Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, murdering 17 people and injuring 17 others. Cruz, a former student at the school, fled the scene on foot by blending in with other students and was arrested without incident approximately one hour and twenty minutes later in nearby Coral Springs.
Cruz told a psychologist that he committed the shooting on Valentine's Day because he believed that no one loved him.
Legal proceedings
Arraignment At his initial arraignment the day after the shootings, Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and held without bond. According to an affidavit by the sheriff's office, Cruz confessed to the shooting. It was also claimed Cruz told officers that he brought additional loaded magazines hidden in a backpack.
Cruz was placed on suicide watch in an isolation cell (solitary confinement) after the arraignment. Lead defense counsel Gordon Weekes asked Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer to recuse herself, claiming that her previous comments and rulings showed favoritism toward the prosecution, which would prevent Cruz from receiving a fair trial. She disagreed and declined the request on .
2018