Editing Nikolas Cruz (section)

== Biography ==
Nikolas Jacob Cruz was born on September 24, 1998, in Margate, Florida to [[Brenda Woodward]], a woman with a violent criminal history who has been arrested 46 times including in 1998 when she was caught buying crack cocaine while six months pregnant with Cruz. He and his half 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 by heart attack. 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.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/02/15/florida-shooting-suspect-nikolas-cruz-guns-depression-and-a-life-in-free-fall/ Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz: Guns, depression and a life in trouble], ''Washington Post''</ref>

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

Nikolas’s mother doted on him, and he was still learning to do household chores and laundry in his late teen years. Nikolas had bad influences 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.

Cruz was once expelled from his high school for bringing bullets in his backpack, and his pupils reported that Cruz liked to talk about guns, bullets, and poaching. He was also reported that he would make threats towards other students.<ref>[https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-school-shooting-cruz-20180214-story.html Nikolas Cruz: Troubled suspect had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School], ''Sun Sentinel''</ref>

After his mother's death in November 2017, Cruz and his brother were taken in by Rocxanne Deschamps, a family friend. Cruz stayed there for a little less than a month, during which time Deschamps called 911 on him a number of times. She was afraid that Cruz might harm either himself or her family with his gun. According to Deschamps's statement, she called 911 for the third time when Cruz was punching holes in the wall, and attacked her son. By the time the police arrived, Cruz had left the house, and Deschamps was afraid he had gone to get his gun. When he returned, Deschamps served Cruz an ultimatum: he could either stay at her house and give up his gun or leave. Cruz chose to leave. He lived with a friend for a brief period of time before moving into James Snead's house.