‘HE’S HIS OWN PERSON’

2 Men Accused of Exploiting Parkland Shooter’s Brother

Mike Donovan, one of the men charged, told the Sun-Sentinel that Zachary Cruz was unavailable to comment, as he was out riding his skateboard.

Two Virginia men were arrested on felony charges on Wednesday, accused of exploiting the only living relative of the man who has confessed to killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in 2018. Just weeks after the shooting, partners Mike Donovan and Richard Moore, both 45, offered to let Zachary Cruz, 22, move to Virginia to stay with them. Donovan told the Sun-Sentinel Wednesday in a telephone interview after being released on a $50,000 bond each that indictments handed down by an Augusta County grand jury charged him and Moore with exploiting a mentally incapacitated person and obtaining money by false pretenses. “I want to point that out that first of all, I didn’t exploit Zach, and secondly, Zach isn’t mentally incapacitated,” he told the newspaper. “Zach is this incredible young man and he really should be broken, and he’s not… His brother is a madman, but Jesus Christ, he’s his own person. He doesn’t deserve this.” Donovan added that Cruz was unable to comment, as he was out skateboarding.