Cruz lived briefly in a Lantana, Florida, trailer park after his adoptive mother had passed away. It is about a half-hour to the north of the school.
And now, WPTV is reporting Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies responded three times to the mobile home during his short stay.
According to the television station, deputies once came after a report of a fight. Another time they came for a welfare check and still another for a report of a weapon.
And the Palm Beach Post said logs provided by the sheriff's office portrays Cruz as "a disturbed and potentially violent 19-year-old."
According to the Post, a Nov. 28 sheriff's report noted a woman identified as Rocxanne Deschamps, who was helping out Cruz, said he told her he recently had bought a gun and was going out to get it and "tons of ammo."
The woman said Cruz "has used a gun against [people] before" and "has put the gun to others' heads in the past," the Post said quoting the log entry.
However, this is not believed to be the AR-15 rifle used in the Parkland slayings, the Post added. Cruz ended up calling 911 to say he had left the mobile home to go to a park after Deschamps's son, Rock, threatened to "gut him" if he returned home, the newspaper said.
The next day, Deschamps's son called 911 to say the two men had a fight and Cruz had punched a hole in the wall of the mobile home and was breaking things.
Cruz later told deputies he "was sorry for losing his temper." Deschamps told deputies he "did not want (Cruz) to go to jail," WPTV said. The two men later hugged.
A short time later, Cruz moved in with James and Kimberly Snead in Parkland in Broward County.
"We had this monster living under our roof and we didn't know," Kimberly Snead told the Sun Sentinel. "We didn't see this side of him."
Commentary: Everyone effected by this senseless tragedy still have raw emotions and are demanding lawmakers do something immediately. A Florida School Teacher who had recently been named teacher of the year, has had the best response to what changes need to be made and where it needs to start.
“Until we, as a country, are willing to get serious and talk about mental health issues, lack of available care for the mental health issues, lack of discipline in the home, horrendous lack of parental support when the schools are trying to control horrible behavior at school (oh no! Not MY KID. What did YOU do to cause my kid to react that way?), lack of moral values, and yes, I’ll say it-violent video games that take away all sensitivity to ANY compassion for others’ lives, as well as reality TV that makes it commonplace for people to constantly scream up in each others’ faces and not value any other person but themselves, we will have a gun problem in school,” she wrote.
Guns have been a constant in America, she wrote, arguing that what has changed in our society is that children no longer “understand the permanency of death.”
Though she “grew up with guns,” Raley wrote that healthy doses of fear and respect for authority kept her out of trouble.
“My parents NEVER supported any bad behavior from me,” she wrote. “I was terrified of doing something bad at school, as I would have not had a life until I corrected the problem and straightened my ass out. My parents invaded my life. They knew where I was ALL the time. They made me have a curfew. They made me wake them up when I got home. They made me respect their rules. They had full control of their house, and at any time could and would go through every inch of my bedroom, backpack, pockets, anything!”
She led up to a plea for parents to “STEP UP” and be “the parent that actually gives a crap” about their children’s lives.
Instead of attempting to be another friend, Raley said what kids really need is parental guidance.
“Being the ‘cool mom’ means not a d— thing when either your kid is dead or your kid kills other people because they were allowed to have their space and privacy in YOUR HOME,” she wrote.
The thought of shooting someone never crossed her mind, Raley argued, not because there were no guns in the home, which there were, but because she was “taught respect for human life, compassion, rules, common decency,” and most of all that her bedroom was subject to inspection at any time by her parents.
“And they were going to know what was happening because they loved me and wanted the best for me,” she wrote.
Her post gained widespread support across the ideological spectrum, as she conspicuously avoided the hot-button issue of gun control.
“I didn’t bring up gun control, and I will refuse to debate it with anyone,” she concluded. “This post wasn’t about gun control. This was me, loving the crap out of people and wanting the best for them. This was about my school babies and knowing that God created each one for greatness, and just wanting them to reach their futures.”
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