Nikolas Cruz

Nikolas Jacob Cruz was a American mass murderer and school shooter who perpetrated the Stoneman Douglas shootings, which left 17 people dead and 17 wounded.

Background
Nikolas Jacob Cruz was born on September 24, 1998, in Margate, Florida. He and his brother were adopted by Lynda and Rodger Cruz.

By the time he was 3, he was diagnosed with developmental delays. By the time he was 6, he suffered the trauma of witnessing his father's death. Lynda was left to raise the 2 boys all by herself.

Nikolas wasn’t an easy child. He had been diagnosed with a string of disorders and conditions: depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, emotional behavioral disability and autism, records from the state Department of Children and Families show. His mom told sheriff’s deputies he also had obsessive-compulsive disorder and anger issues.

He had counselors in school and at home, according to DCF records, and he took medications.

Nikolas’s mother doted on him, friends told the Sun Sentinel, and he was still learning to do household chores and laundry in his late teen years. Nikolas had trouble making friends among peers, school records say. When Zachary wanted to play with friends, their mother would make him take Nikolas along, the former neighbor and friend said. His brother and friends would often bully him.

His mother called the police to say he got physical with his brother and with her. The agency responded to 23 calls over 10 years, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.

When he was 14, his mother reported that he had hit her with the plastic hose from a vacuum cleaner. A few months later, she told deputies he had thrown her against the wall because she took away his Xbox gaming system. A year later, she told deputies Nikolas, then 15, had punched the wall after she took away his Xbox.

Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia. She was 68.

Fatalities

 * Gina Montalto
 * Luke Hoyer
 * Martin Daque
 * Alex Schacter
 * Helena Ramsay
 * Nicholas Dworet
 * Alania Petty
 * Alyssa Alhadeff
 * Carmen Schentrup
 * Chris Hixon
 * Aaron Feis
 * Scott Biegel
 * Peter Wang
 * Jaime Guttenberg
 * Cara Loughran
 * Meadow Pollack
 * Joaquin Oliver