A 911 call log released on Thursday by the Broward County Sheriff’s Department reveals that police were first told that Nikolas Cruz might commit a school shooting two years before he massacred 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
On February 5, 2016, a neighbor’s son alerted officers to an Instagram post that showed Cruz, then a juvenile, holding guns and threatening to shoot up the school.
The deputy who responded noted that Cruz, who was 17 at the time, had BB guns and knives but did not write up a report, choosing instead to notify the school.
Nothing was done at all however in November when a caller informed police that the teenager was ‘collecting guns and knives,’ adding: ‘Cruz will kill himself one day and believes he could be a school shooter in the making.’
The officers who responded to those two calls are now under internal investigation, but not the deputy who responded to a report that Cruz was gathering up an arsenal of weapons in November 1 but refused to take away any of the young man’s guns after a ‘family friend’ said she would keep them in her possession.
That friend, based on the address to which police reported, appears to be Rocxanne Deschamps.
A Florida Department of Family Services worker also called police in September 2016 to report that Cruz had been speaking about purchasing a gun shortly after he was in a fight at school.
Warned: Nikolas Cruz, 19, was reported to police multiple times in the two years before he massacred 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (Cruz above in court on Monday)
Guradian: Police also received multiple calls in November after the death of Lynda Cruz when Nikolas moved in with Rocxanne Deschamps (above)
Review: The Broward County Sheriff’s Department has launched two internal investigations into officers who failed to further investigate Cruz’s behavior
Police were also called on November 28 by Deschamps after an incident involving Cruz.
‘He came in the house and started banging all the doors, and banging all the walls. Hitting the walls, throwing everything in the room, and then my son got in there,’ Dechamps can be heard saying in audio of that 911 call.
She then explains that her son, Rock, tried to calm Cruz down, with his anger stemming from the fact that he lost a photo of his mother.
‘I’m afraid if he comes back, and he has a lot of weapons,’ Deschamps said during the call.
‘He has a weapon that he is going to get it at Dick’s [a sporting goods store] right now, because he purchased it.’
She also said on that call the she had forbid him from having guns.
‘He put the gun to the head of his brother before. This is not the first time, and he did that to his mom, and his mom died. It is not the first time that he put a gun on somebody’s head,’ said Dechamps.
During this, Cruz himself called 911 at the same time in tears.
‘Hi, I was just at where I am staying and someone attacked me, and they said they were going to gut me if I came back,’ said Cruz.
‘I got mad, and I started punching walls and stuff, and then a kid came at me and threw me on the ground, and he started attacking me. And then he kicked me out of the house, and he said was going to gut me.’
Cruz wet on to explain that he was in a delicate state because he had just lost his mother.
Rock and Cruz later made amends in front of officers, with both boys saying they were sorry.
Three days before this, Rock had called [lice to report that Cruz had buried a gun in their backyard.
And three days after this call was when officers were informed about the fact that Cruz wanted to shoot up the school and had an arsenal of weapons.
Cruz’s brother Zachary was also a focus of police calls around this time too after failing to show up to school that entire month following the death of his mother.