Zachary cruz prior arrest11/28/2023 Woodard had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and a long rap sheet dating back to at least the 1980s. The boys’ birth mother was Brenda Woodard who, at the time of her pregnancy with Cruz, was homeless, an alcoholic, a drug addict and working as a prostitute. Zachary has the same biological mother as Cruz and was also adopted by Lynda and Roger Cruz. Here’s what we know about Cruz’s younger brother: Early life While the trial is casting more of a spotlight on Cruz and his actions leading up to the mass shooting, Zachary also hit headlines in the aftermath of the attack. On Valentine’s Day 2018, Cruz took an Uber to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, armed with an AR-15 style rifle and gunned down students and staff.įourteen students and three educators were killed in the massacre. Zacharay, who is 14 months younger than his 23-year-old murderer brother, has stood by Cruz ever since he carried out one of the deadliest school shootings in US history. Zachary Cruz, 22, is expected to testify for the defence in Cruz’s sentencing trial, where a jury will decide whether to give him to life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Woodard backs right into a patrolman, who is lunging away trying to avoid being hit.The brother of Parkland mass shooter Nikolas Cruz is believed to be starring in a reality show about his life and was previously charged with trespassing at the school where his brother murdered 17 innocent people. An officer orders Woodard to get out of the sedan, but she guns the engine and crashes into a fence, then reverses. Woodard darts away, speeds through red lights but eventually is cornered at a dead-end near Northwest Seventh Avenue and 23rd Street. January 2010: A Miami police cruiser spots Danielle Woodard in a stolen 1998 gold Nissan Maxima. The complaint says Woodard pushed a man off of his wheelchair, knocked him to the floor and then “struck” the man’s 67-year-old companion, injuring both. July 2007: Sweetwater police arrest Danielle Woodard on charges of elder abuse and battery on a disabled person. For sure she is not going to do this anymore.” ‘Poor choices and bad decisions’īut Woodard did do it again. “See that she doesn’t do this again… a very young girl. “I wish you to help this girl,” he told Woodard’s public defender. The car’s owner, Antonio Rodriguez, felt sorry for Woodard. The car had been left idling in a driveway as a man went to fetch his cousin. In November of 2005, Danielle Woodard stole another car. In 2010, she was charged with using a tire iron to beat a partner with whom she shared an apartment in a Hallandale Beach senior living complex. In July 2007, Hallandale Beach police arrested her near an interstate exit ramp, where she was holding a cardboard sign that read “Homeless and hungry god bless you.”Īnd her temper remained. In the coming years, as Woodard aged and her reddish hair turned salt-and-pepper, the woman sometimes known as “Duke” appears to have kicked her addiction.Īnd though Woodard may not have been using narcotics - her criminal history doesn’t include any drug arrests after 2003 - her troubles were far from over: At some point in the mid-2000s, Woodard was homeless and repeatedly picked up trespassing charges for panhandling. By 2003, Woodard was in drug treatment, and a Broward judge allowed her to travel to Miami for the birth of a grandchild. In 1999, she did an 18-month stint for car theft, fleeing a police officer and other charges. She was incarcerated for five months in 1989, then for another seven months the next year. She was found with crack cocaine, amphetamines and codeine. While there’s no such thing as a “crime gene” - as some early researchers posited - an abundance of research shows that the aggregation of certain genetic markers, together with environmental triggers, significantly increases the likelihood that a person will react violently or aggressively. Beaver, a professor of criminology at Florida State University, says he, and others who have studied the issue, do have scientific proof. “I don’t have any scientific proof, but there certainly is a significant genetic component.” His apparent familial inclinations toward addiction and violence may be other themes the defense could pursue.Īfter decades of seeing the same surnames appear in intake logs, Brummer said, he concluded that environment alone failed to explain the inclination toward violence that appeared to be inherited among certain families like eye color and hairlines : “Families just kept coming back bad,” he said. Cruz’s public defenders are expected to argue that his youth, history of emotional illness and lack of support from school and social service agencies contributed to the tragedy.
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