Zachary Cruz: 5 Things About Brother Of Parkland Shooter Who Was Arrested At MS Douglas High School

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This is just odd. Zachary Cruz, the brother of the Parkland shooter, was arrested at the same school where Nikolas Cruz carried out his rampage. Get the details about him and what went down.

1. He was arrested for trespassing. After what Nikolas Cruz, 19, did at Marjory Stoneman High School, you’d think that Zachary Cruz, 18, would want to stay far, far away from it. However, the younger sibling of the Parkland, Florida shooting was busted on school grounds on March 19, according to the Los Angles Times. He reportedly rode his skateboard at 4:30 PM ET across the campus, after the school day had ended.

2. Zachary said he wanted to “reflect” on what happened. Zachary had been warned by school officials to keep away from the school. However, he defied these orders to “reflect on the school shooting and soak it in,” according to the arrest report. Though, don’t think he pulled some kind of Ocean’s 11 stunt to get in. “It wasn’t some breach of security,” Broward School Supt. Robert Runcie said. “He came through whatever gate was open at the time. Somebody spotted him and reported him to BSO. They responded quickly. It’s kind of odd, and I understand [Zachary’s appearance] does creep people out.”

3. On the night of the school shooting, Zachary said he wanted to die. Zachary had been living with a family friend, Roxanne Deschamps, since his adoptive mother died in November 2017. “I don’t want to be alive. I don’t want to deal with this stuff,” Zachary told Roxanne, according to a police report.

4. He said he felt guilty over what his brother did. Both boys were adopted by Lynda and Roger Cruz when Nikolas was 2 and Zachary was 2 months old, according to the Washington Post. Relatives said that Nikolas and Zachary have the same biological mother buy have different fathers. Zachary reportedly told an officer on Feb. 16, two days after the shooting, that he said he felt “somewhat responsible and guilty about the incident and that he could have possibly prevented [it.]” Zachary and his friends bullied his older brother when they were younger, and Zachary wishes he were “nicer” to Nikolas.

5. Some of his fellow students understood why he trespassed, while others were weirded out. Zachary has been described as the “quiet brother” who was more content to follow Nikolas’s lead. The news of his arrest left some students puzzled. “That’s crazy, Josef Bagiv, 16, told the Sun-Sentinel. “Just weird.” However, some people sympathized with what Zachary was going through.

“It might come off as insensitive to some,” John Mansfield, 17, a junior, said. “I think he’s trying to understand like everyone else.”

Nikolas was indicted by a grand jury on 34 counts of premeditated murder and attempted murder stemming from the Feb. 14 massacred that killed 1`7 people. Prosecutors have stated they will seek the death penalty.