Zachary Cruz, the younger brother of Parkland school shooter Nicholas Cruz, will appear on the “Dr. Oz Show” today.
Cruz, 18, will be interviewed by the Palm Beach cardiac surgeon on the show which airs 3 p.m. on WTVJ-Ch. 6 in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and on WPBF-Ch. 25 in West Palm Beach. The episode is part of Mehmet’s “True Crime Tuesdays.’’
Zachary Cruz was 17 when his older brother fatally shot 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day last year.
“I know there are signs I missed,’’ said Zachary Cruz in a clip of Mehmet’s show. Zachary Cruz, who like his brother, had been kicked out of the home of Rocxanne Deschamps who was like a surrogate mother to them after their mother died in November 2017.
Zachary Cruz, who was put on probation after the trespassed at Stoneman Douglas about a month after the shooting, moved to Virginia last year.
In a recent story in the Washington Post, he talked about feeling excluded from his South Florida community and his new life in Virginia where his his own anti-bullying organization, called We Isolate No-one or WIN.
He also told the paper about being caught between his brother’s act and supporting his only living family member by attending his court hearings and visiting him in jail. “I’m stuck between loving him and hating him because of what he did,’’ he said.
Mehmet’s show, which formerly ran on WPLG-Ch. 10, has been airing on the South Florida NBC station since Sept. 4.