"He stood out like a sore thumb," he said. When he was 8, he acted like a 6-year-old, at best, Kravitz said. Testimony has shown that his birth mother was a street prostitute who abused cocaine and alcohol and as a toddler he was developmentally delayed, often violent towards other children and teased and bullied for his small stature, unusual appearance and odd behavior. The defense has focused on the mental and emotional problems Cruz exhibited from his earliest days. If one juror votes for life, that will be his sentence.
The defense is trying to overcome the prosecution's case, which featured surveillance video of Cruz, then 19, mowing down students and staff with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle as he stalked a three-story building for seven minutes, photos of the aftermath and a jury visit to the building.įor Cruz to receive a death sentence, the jury must be unanimous. She was 57, depressed from her husband's sudden 2003 death and dealing with two "tumultuous" young children, he said. He said that was a major issue - Lynda Cruz would agree that her son needed more consistent treatment and she needed to be more consistent in her discipline of him and his younger half-brother, Zachary, but did not follow through. Kravitz said that while he suggested weekly sessions for Cruz, his mother only brought him 15 times over a 13-month span, a decade before he murdered 17 people at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. But she also said he was friendly and got along fine with his peers - claims that a neighbor, preschool teachers and an elementary school special education counselor have testified were not true.
FORT LAUDERDALE - A psychologist who treated Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz when he was 8 years old testified Wednesday that Cruz was a "peculiar child" who had many behavioral and developmental issues but his widowed mother seemed overwhelmed and wasn't consistent in her discipline or in getting him treatment.įrederick Kravitz said he began treating Cruz in 2007 on a referral from Cruz's psychiatrist with Lynda Cruz telling him her adopted son suffered from anxiety and nervousness and had trouble controlling his temper.
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