‘ENABLER’

Mom of Parkland Shooting Suspect Nikolas Cruz Let Him Buy Guns: Official

Mental health counselors told her not to let him.

The mother of Parkland shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz allowed him to buy guns despite warnings from mental health counselors, officials said Tuesday. His late mother, Lynda Cruz, was “an enabler,” said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualteri, who heads the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission. He said she told counselors, “If he wants to have a gun, he could have a gun” and interfered with counselors’ attempts to help her son. Cruz legally purchased the AR-15 rifle he would allegedly use to kill 14 people and injure several others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He was living with his mother at the time. Cruz was diagnosed with developmental disabilities as a young child and went to a school for children with emotional and behavioral challenges before attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Cruz’s brother, Zachary Cruz, told the Miami Herald that Nikolas had pointed a gun at him and their mother in separate incidents.