The brother of Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old charged with the shooting rampage at a Parkland, Fla., high school last month, was arrested Monday for allegedly trespassing on the school’s campus, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
Zachary Cruz, 18, told deputies he skateboarded through the grounds of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School because he wanted to “reflect on the school shooting and soak it in,” according to his arrest report.
He allegedly bypassed the campus’s locked doors and gates despite previous warnings by school officials to stay off the property, officials said.
Broward County prosecutors last week said they would seek a death sentence for Nikolas Cruz, who was indicted by a grand jury this month on 34 counts of premeditated murder and attempted murder in the Feb. 14 massacre, which killed 17 people and injured the same number.
Students at schools across the country walked out of class last Wednesday, one month since the shooting, to protest gun violence. Survivors of the shooting plan to lead a gun-control march on Washington on Saturday.
Zachary Cruz, who Broward County officials said has no ties to the area, was interviewed by detectives from multiple law enforcement agencies after the Feb. 14 massacre, according to police records. A Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detective wrote in a report two days later that Zachary Cruz expressed remorse regarding the shooting and how he had treated his brother.
Cruz is described as feeling “somewhat responsible and guilty” about the shooting rampage because he and his friends had bullied Nikolas Cruz when they were all younger, “which he now regrets ever doing,” the detective wrote in the report.
“Zachary wishes that he had been ‘nicer’ to his brother,” the report stated.
The detective wrote that Cruz apparently felt some resentment toward his sibling, who was viewed as “the favored brother.”
The brothers were adopted by Lynda and Roger Cruz when Nikolas was 2 and Zachary was 2 months old, friends and relatives said. Relatives said Nikolas and Zachary shared a biological mother but have different fathers.
Another report from the same day said Cruz was visited by the Broward County and Palm Beach County sheriff’s officers regarding a Crime Stoppers tip they had received. The details of this tip were redacted from the report.
After speaking with Cruz, the Broward sheriff’s officer determined the tip was “only rumor at this time and that no further action was going to be taken regarding the tip,” according to a Palm Beach sheriff’s report.
The shooting has led to several investigations into how officials handled warnings about Nikolas Cruz beforehand and how they reacted to the shooting when it occurred. Authorities on the local, state and federal level, for example, are examining how the FBI and Broward County Sheriff’s Office responded to repeated warnings about Cruz’s potential for carrying out a school shooting, and whether sheriff’s deputies remained outside the school during the shooting, as some officers have alleged.
The Cruz brothers both stayed with friends in Lantana, in Palm Beach County, Fla., after their mother died. While Nikolas Cruz had fights with these people and ultimately left the home, staying with another family before the shooting, his brother is described in police records as remaining with them.
According to jail visitor logs, in the wake of the shooting Zachary Cruz visited his brother at least twice, along with the woman the brothers stayed with after their mother died.
ATLANTA — Severe storms that spawned tornadoes damaged homes and downed trees as they moved across the Southeast on Monday night.
Forecasters warned that the storms could threaten more than 29 million people, raising the risk of powerful tornadoes, damaging winds and hail the size of tennis balls.
Cities in northern Alabama reported power outages, and the National Weather Service in Huntsville reported at least three confirmed tornadoes in the area.
In Limestone County, an Alabama county on the Tennessee border, the sheriff’s office posted photos online of houses with roofs ripped off and outbuildings torn from their foundations. Several roads were closed because of power lines or trees, the office tweeted. But it had no reports of injuries from the storms.
The athletic director at Jacksonville State University said late Monday there was significant damage to the campus.
“I can confirm we have major roof damage at Pete Mathews Coliseum, but The Pete is not completely destroyed,” Greg Seitz said in a tweet.
Seitz later tweeted that they were still surveying the campus but that there was major roof damage to two halls, adding that his was thankful that JSU was on spring break this week and that most students are out of town.
Portions of northern Alabama and southern Tennessee were still under tornado warnings Monday night, and the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for much of northern Georgia as the line moved eastward.
Forecasters said the storm threat is unusually dangerous because of the possibility of several tornadoes, some of which could be intense. The weather service says hail as large as 3 inches (7.5 centimeters) in diameter could fall, and there’s a possibility of wind gusts to 70 mph (115 kph).
Portions of northern Alabama and southern Tennessee were still under tornado warnings Monday night, and the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for much of northern Georgia as the line moved eastward.
(Limestone County Sheriff’s Offic)
“The potential for strong to violent, long-track tornadoes is a real possibility,” Alabama state meteorologist Jim Stefkovic said at a news conference.
Alabama Emergency Management Executive Operations Officer Jeff Smitherman raised the threat level and increased staffing at Alabama’s emergency management agency. The storms are the first severe weather to threaten the state this year.
School systems from central Tennessee as far south as Birmingham, Alabama, let out early, hoping students and staff would have time to get home before the storms moved through.
The threatened storms come one day before the official start of spring, and are “by far the most impressive setup we’ve seen so far this year,” said Kurt Weber, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Huntsville, Alabama.
“We can’t rule out a strong tornado east of Interstate 65 at this point with all the ingredients coming together,” Weber added. “Hopefully not, but definitely a possibility.”
He said golf ball to tennis ball-sized hail, which can do serious damage to buildings and cars, was possible.
“This is one of those days you want to put the car in the garage if you can,” Weber said.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey urged Alabamians to implement safety plans and get in a safe location.
“We are not taking the situation lightly,” Ivey said. “Severe weather is unpredictable and that is why it is paramount we prepare ahead of time.”
The University of Alabama suspended operations Monday from 6:30 p.m. to midnight, meaning classes and campus activities were cancelled, libraries closed and shelters were opened on campus.
