As the defence case for Nikolas Cruz continues in Florida, a former neighbour of the Cruz family took the stand explaining how as a young boy the Parkland shooter had always been regarded as “not right” and a “weird one”.
Cruz is in court for the penalty phase of his trial for the murder of 17 people — 14 students and three teachers — at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the attempted murder of 17 more on 14 February 2018. He pleaded guilty in October 2021.
Steven Schusler was called to testify as he rented a guest house from the Cruz family’s neighbour in Parkland from 2009 until 2015.
With close proximity to the family, he observed various incidents over the years, describing them in detail for the jury, and even acting one out in the middle of the courtroom.
Mr Schusler said he would often work on a vintage motorcycle in the driveway shared by the two homes. Shortly after he moved in he was introduced to the two boys playing nearby by the woman from whom he rented.
The boys were Zachary and Nikolas, whom he referred to as Niki, and he recalled at their first meeting being told in his presence: “This is Niki. He’s the weird one.”
Mr Schusler was appalled that the comment was made in front of the boy, but also noticed that he shrunk back upon hearing it, his face scrunching up, and likening it to salt being put on a snail.
“You could see that something just not right,” he told the jury, also likening the young Cruz, aged about 10 at the time, to Alfred E Neuman of Mad magazine.
Mr Schusler described the period in which he knew Cruz as being in three phases — their first meeting, a second phase in which he was friendly and observed Cruz, and a third in which he was cautious of him.
In the second phase of knowing Nicky, Mr Schusler recalls an incident in which Lynda was about to leave the property in her minivan when Cruz burst out of the house and ran to the car, crying out that she had not kissed him goodbye. She did so and he described her looking “sheepish”.
Mr Schusler also recalls county vehicles, including sheriff’s vehicles, outside the property between 10 and 20 times over the six years he lived there. Once Lynda told him it was because of Nikolas.
It transpired in cross-examination that the majority of these incidents related to Zachary and more were to do with the counselling and therapy the family was receiving.
With further questioning, as time went on he remembered seeing Zachary, Cruz’s younger brother, skateboarding and playing with other boys across the street while he worked on his motorcycle.
He recalled Cruz always standing apart from the rest and not skating himself.
Asked if he had ever seen Cruz with a gun, Mr Schusler described an odd incident in which he saw him run around the side of the house with an airsoft gun, firing at rocks.
He describes Cruz running “spasmodically”, lurching and flailing, like a two-year-old could not walk yet. He then demonstrated for the court.
Mr Schusler explained how as the Cruz boys and their friends got older they began hanging around with another boy in a group of about five. He recalls the boys would smoke cigarettes and the new addition to the group was the leader.
There was an incident in which he found them on his porch and forcefully told them to leave the property. He says it was then he became very cautious of the boys.
Asked why he had got in touch with the public defender in the Cruz sentencing case, Mr Schusler said that after he saw Cruz’s guilty plea on television and his apparent blaming of marijuana use, he thought it was important to let them know that he had always been different.
“This boy did not go bad. He was never right,” he said.
