Homeless in Arizona

That sounds ridiculous even if Zachary Cruz is the brother of the Florida, Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz.

Defense lawyer Joseph Kimok objected to the bond amount, noting that a typical case of trespassing comes with a $25 bond.

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Brother of Florida School Shooting Suspect Held on $500,000 Bail

By REUTERSMARCH 20, 2018, 8:03 P.M. E.D.T.

(Reuters) - A Florida judge ordered the brother of suspected high school shooter Nikolas Cruz to be held on $500,000 bail for a trespassing charge after prosecutors on Tuesday said he had visited the campus three times since the Feb. 14 massacre.

Zachary Cruz, 18, told deputies he went to the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, to “reflect on the school shooting and to soak it in,” according to the arrest report.

Also on Tuesday, the local sheriff's department asked that a judge invoke part of a new Florida gun law passed earlier this month in reaction to the mass shootings to keep Zachary Cruz from having a firearm.

The Broward Sheriff's Office said it is using the "red flag" or "risk assessment" portion of the measure signed into law March 9.

If granted, it would place a protection order on Zachary Cruz that would prohibit him from possessing or buying a firearm for a term determined by the court.

During Cruz's court appearance on Tuesday for trespassing, a Broward County prosecutor said school officials had told him to stay away from the campus, where his brother killed 17 people last month.

"Weeks after his brother murdered, injured and terrorized the school, he is there with no legitimate purpose," Assistant State Attorney Sarahnell Murphy said of Zachary Cruz.

Murphy said Cruz currently lived with a guardian in a nearby county but gave a false address to police.

The brothers lived with a Florida neighbor, Rocxanne Deschamps, after their mother's death in November.

At a news conference in New York City on Tuesday, Deschamps told of her attempts to warn police that Nikolas Cruz had a history of violence and had purchased a gun. She said she called 911 three times to tell police he had punched holes in her wall and may have been planning to bury a gun in the backyard.

“I was very concerned that the gun which he had purchased might be brought into my house or that he might get the gun and use is to harm himself and others,” Deschamps read from a prepared statement.

“Law enforcement said nothing could be done,” she said, wiping away tears.

She said she begged Nikolas to see a doctor because “he was very depressed” after his mother’s death, but he refused to take medication.

In the Florida courtroom, Murphy said Zachary Cruz had visited his brother in jail, "where he has been heard and observed discussing how popular his brother is now."

A defense lawyer for Zachary Cruz said he was not dangerous.

"He is being held because of who he is related to, not because of what he did," attorney Joseph Kimok said.

Judge Kim Theresa Mollica ordered Cruz to be fitted with an ankle monitor should he post bail and told him to stay at least a mile away from the high school in Parkland.

She instructed him not to have any contact with his brother or anyone at the school.

The Broward Sheriff's Office, which was criticized for its performance in the school shooting, on Tuesday detailed recent incidents at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, including the arrest of a 10th-grader on a misdemeanor charge of posting threatening images on social media. The unnamed student posted on Snapchat a photo of a gun in his waistband and another image of bullets, officials said.

Two other students were arrested for bringing knives in separate incidents to the school, the sheriff's office said.

The sheriff's office also said it was suspending with pay a deputy found asleep in a patrol car shortly after Zachary Cruz was arrested on Monday.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins and Bernie Woodall; Editing by Dan Grebler and Cynthia Osterman)

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Bond set at $500,000 for Zachary Cruz after prosecutors call him a threat to Parkland

Rafael Olmeda and Anne GeggisContact Reporters South Florida Sun Sentinel

The system that failed to protect the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School from mass shooter Nikolas Cruz cannot afford to make the same mistake with his brother, a Broward prosecutor argued Tuesday.

Zachary Cruz, 18, poses the same threat as his older brother — and his decision to trespass onto the Stoneman Douglas campus after school Monday is a warning sign that cannot be ignored, Assistant State Attorney Sarahnell Murphy said in court.

Weeks after his brother “murdered, injured and terrorized” the school, Zachary Cruz showed up on campus “with no legitimate purpose,” Murphy said. “He has all the same flags present as his brother.”

A judge set bond at $500,000 for Cruz and ordered a host of pretrial conditions more often seen in felony cases than misdemeanors. And before Cruz is released from jail, police are to search his caretaker’s home in Lantana and remove all firearms.

Later Tuesday, the Broward Sheriff’s Office filed a petition for a “temporary risk protection order” under the state’s new gun law, identifying Zachary Cruz as someone who “poses a significant danger of causing personal injury to himself or others by having a firearm.”

If granted, the order would give the Sheriff’s Office the legal authority to seize guns found in Cruz’s home and prevent him from purchasing or possessing a firearm for one year.

In the meantime, authorities involuntarily hospitalized Zachary Cruz for a mental-health evaluation under the state’s Baker Act, according to a sheriff’s news release.

Deputies said one reason they are concerned with Zachary Cruz, according to the petition, is that they asked him his plans for the future and he responded, “I don’t know right now.”

His brother Nikolas Cruz is charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at the Parkland high school.

Zachary Cruz admitted to police Monday that he rode his skateboard onto the campus, ignoring orders to stay away from the school, to reflect on what his brother had done, according to an arrest report.

Murphy said Cruz’s late afternoon visit left the Stoneman Douglas community in fear, with some parents refusing to let their teenage children go back to the school on Tuesday. “They have again been terrorized,” she said.

At least one student at the school Tuesday said he thought the bail amount was excessive.

"I'm not worried about the Cruz family, " said Chris Donnelly, 17, a junior.

Others said it’s frightening that Zachary Cruz admitted trespassing on the school campus three times since the massacre.

“That's crazy,” said Josef Bagiv, 16, a junior. “Just weird.”

Conner Gandy, 17, a senior, said Zachary Cruz should have at least warned people before he visited the school. Cruz’s showing up “frightens everyone,” given how depressed he might be, he said.

“It's weird and suspicious, but I don't think he would do anything,” he said.

Since his arrest Monday, Zachary Cruz has had contact in jail with his brother, Murphy said.

“He has been heard and observed discussing how popular his brother is now,” she said. “That his face is everywhere and his name is national.”

Murphy said there has been a discussion about starting a pen pal or fan club and the fact that Nikolas Cruz is capable of attracting a lot of girls.

In court Tuesday, Murphy told Broward County Judge Kim Mollica that it would be irresponsible to treat the new case as a typical trespassing infraction.

“His mother and father are deceased, his brother is incarcerated,” Murphy said.

During his arrest, Zachary Cruz gave authorities an address where used to live in Parkland.

No one heeded warning signs about Nikolas Cruz before school shooting

Murphy said the guardian Cruz lives with in Lantana, Rocxanne Deschamps, was in New York when he was arrested Monday and had no idea how or why he went to the school. Deschamps was in New York to participate in a news conference, where she described her family’s hardships from living with Nikolas Cruz.

If Zachary Cruz is able to post a bond, he will be fitted with an ankle monitor to track his movements, Mollica said.

He will not be allowed within a mile of Stoneman Douglas or within 500 feet of any school campus.

He is not to enter Broward County except for court-related business. Cruz would have to raise 10 percent of the bond amount to go free as he waits for his case to be resolved.

Defense lawyer Joseph Kimok objected to the bond amount, noting that a typical case of trespassing comes with a $25 bond.

Zachary Cruz “is being held because of who he is related to, not because of anything he did,” Kimok said. “The state has been seeking to make a show of this.”

Cruz did not speak during Tuesday’s hearing. Kimok and prosecutors declined to comment after the hearing.

School officials worried about Nikolas Cruz and guns 18 months before mass shooting Zachary Cruz also was committed for mental health treatment under the Baker Act after the shooting, Murphy said during Tuesday’s hearing.

State records show he had two prior run-ins in 2016 with Coral Springs police, being detained on larceny and criminal mischief charges.

Stoneman Douglas’ school day ends at 2:40 p.m. Zachary Cruz allegedly rode his skateboard across the campus at 4:30 p.m. He spent less than 10 minutes there after entering the north gate on Holmberg Road, the same gate his brother entered on the day of the shooting, and exiting at a gate near the front entrance on Pine Island Road.

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz sat with his head bowed, barely acknowledging his attorneys, during his arraignment Wednesday in a heavily guarded Fort Lauderdale courtroom. John Mansfield, 17, a junior, said perhaps Zachary Cruz was trying to make sense of the tragedy.

“I think he's trying to understand like everyone else,” he said.

Staff writers Tonya Alanez and Scott Travis contributed to this report.