Nikolas Cruz Case Analysis | How the System Failed 

My nephew was in Majorie Stoneman Douglas HS shooting. Before hearing Dr. Grande’s analysis, I just want to let you know that almost all the students knew it was Nikolas when the shooting began. If that doesn’t speak volumes as to how the system failed those students and faculty that day, then I don’t know what? My nephew was lucky and is with us today. Thank you always Dr. Grande.

Do they really count as *missed* warning signs if they're actively ignored?

"Not all horrible behaviors can be explained by mental health disorders" Thank you! I hate hearing people push mental health every time...like we need more stigma. I'm ADHD and so are many of my friends and we wouldn't hurt anyone.

I had no idea there was so much negative harmful, frightening, lawless, aggressive behavior before the shooting. For crying out loud. Thank you Doctor Grande. You always do fantastic research and give a lot of intelligent commentary as well as have a big heart. Thank you.

There were SO many red flags and warning signs. WTH?! If a person says they want to kill somebody or a group of people, believe them. He was practically begging to be stopped. 🥴😟

I’m glad you didn’t mention bullying. From what I have learned about this case, Cruz was not bullied. He terrorized his teachers, his classmates, his mother and brother, and his neighbors. Rather than being bullied it seems he was avoided by classmates with common sense. I wonder how many parents heard their kids complain about him. Or how many approached the principal with their concerns. I can’t imagine that no one did.

as a teacher who has tried to get help for students with mental illness, i can tell you at times is impossible no one will listen or help these students

He may as well have been wearing a T-Shirt advertising the fact that he WOULD, at some point, go on a rampage. The fact that this Mother allowed him ANY weapons at all completely blows my mind.

"We've got a dangerous sociopath on our hands, but since we can't figure out how to fix him, let's just treat him like he's normal and hope for the best." *Classic thinking of an enabling system in denial.*

Maybe it sounds odd, but teaching people philosophy and psychology at an early age is very helpful.

If this guy was classified as a low risk to himself and to others then I am really worried about who might be out there walking around 😥

Once it was clear that this boy's issues weren't helped with medicine or psychotherapy, he should have been institutionalized. Especially due to his violent history and threats of shooting up a school.

Starts killing animals. "Nope. No warning signs here." Killing animals is one of the first warning signs.

His parents allowing Cruz to have access to any type of weapon at all is extreme negligence IMO. What in the world were they thinking? Parents of emotionally troubled kids MUST have a backbone.

I really appreciated your analysis on this case. I am from a medical family and have seen similar cases which to my experience involve both genetics and behavioral disorders that are often not sufficiently explored . As a community we all suffer when this happens, and it is tragic. Thank you so much for what you do.

Since the biological mother was taking drugs and drinking when he was born, she may have done that while she was pregnant. That could have caused him to have drug/fetal alcohol syndrome. That damage to his brain could have been partially, or totally, responsible for his mental and behavioral problems. Plus the family issues. Besides the fact nobody knew what to do with him or how to help him later on. It could have been prevented. Interesting analysis, Dr. Grande. I appreciated your empathy and understanding of the facts and circumstances in this case. Great job! 👍 ❤

I love the familiar rhythm of Dr Grande’s video. I can almost always sense him ending a video. The rhythm is very soothing

Please do an update video on how you feel about the outcome of the life sentence. Watching all the videos of the family reactions today is heartbreaking. It seems like every family member and every person to comment on any news outlet feels outraged. Should his mental health give him a Life sentence pass?

I know this isn't going to be a popular comment but can you imagine living your life while being so messed up? I dealt with pmdd and had periods twice a month. Undiagnosed until my thirties and once diagnosed I still couldn't get relief. After I had a hysterectomy and my hormones settled down I remember thinking "is this how other people feel?". No more wild mood swings that would make me feel suicidal or homicidal. No more trying to get a doctor to give me a hysterectomy because of how I was feeling. Pmdd isn't considered grounds for a hysterectomy. So when I hear of someone who has to deal with something like this, I feel for them too. They don't typically enjoy feeling like this. It's also incredibly sad. That along the way no one could help him. It's a tragedy all the way around. I do wonder if some of his issues could be due to fetal alcohol syndrome.

Thanks for explaining that ASD doesn't lead to violence. My son has it.

I have a family member that was at the school the day of the shooting. The young man standing next to him was shot and killed. My family member was wounded by a bullet fragment. About a year after the incident, we ran into a couple in New Mexico and after some polite conversation we found out they had kids at MSD HS. They discussed not just the horror of the shooting and the widespread PTSD effects of those directly impacted, but also how the entire community had become polarized over the issue and how local law enforcement had handled it. School shootings are nothing new and it's hard to grapple with how all these warning signs were ignored and this horrible event was allowed to happen. I'm a volunteer and work with children in another area of Florida and I can tell you the pathetic patchwork of services available to kids in crisis here is stunning. It either rests with local law enforcement to handle kids with problems or the state contracts out private companies to run children's services. The conditions these people work under and the pay they get is ridiculous and it's amazing they are able to retain any qualified people at all.

👍🏻 at 14:45 mark to the end. I am a therapist in Florida. I worked in community mental health for nearly 20 years. This is where folks who are on medicaid or who are indigent have to go for mental health care. It is heartbreaking; there is very little actual treatment, mostly just crisis stabilization and then back on the street in 72 hrs. It is just kicking the can further down the road. For many years Florida has ranked 48th or 49th out of all 50 states for the amount that is spent on mental health care by the Florida legislature.

The devil works hard but Dr. Grande works harder.

Congrats on getting a sponsor! Your videos are so good, I often listen to then while I'm doing chores, on the bus and before k go to sleep. Love your content!

I just watched JCS's video on this freak's cringe-inducing interrogation where he made several pathetic attempts to appear insane.

Even if he had a floating Neon Sign above his head stating "I Am Dangerous and Will Kill Eventually" before the massacre i think nothing would have happened because in our society nothing will happen unless people die first. And then later on the question of why is asked and the true answer is ignored because our society doesn't like hearing truth and because we are lied constantly as a matter of course especially when people die in lone wolf massacres.

Dear Dr. Grande, thank you very much for this and all your other interesting, enriching, and informative videos. I think they could be of major value to those involved in both the judiciary and health professions. Keep well and keep up your work. Coert Mommsen Clinical Psychologist (Ret.) South Africa

With genes like his, the kid never had a chance but it certainly didn’t help that he was throwing out red flags by the dozens and they were just ignored by everyone. How sad for him and his victims.

The more I hear about this case the more positive I am about the fact that shooting was completely preventable. So infuriating. I'm so sad for the families and friends of the people killed. I wonder how they feel about all of this being ignored?

When I first saw Nikolas Cruz’s photo in the news, my first thought was that he had the appearance of a “FLK”, also known as “Funny Looking Kid” in Pediatrics or as having Fetal Alcohol Syndrome characteristics. FLK is an observation by health professionals and one always looks at the appearance of the parents. I feel that he has an odd facial/head/ears appearance.

Just a reminder I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video; only speculating what could happen if you don't use an express vpn like this.

How does a system ignore so many warning signs? This should have never happened. Nice analysis, Doc.

This was a seriously bad kid. It is difficult to institutionalised to the degree necessary prior to his mass shooting. What is society to do? Heartbreaking.

"Yonder stands your orphan with a gun, crying like a fire in the sun." --Bob Dylan, from the song, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" on the 1965 album, "Bringing It All Back Home"

Mom: my son has serious anger issues and violet tendencies. To solve this problem I shall give him access to killing machines.... I'm sorry but what an idiot

You are extremely smart. Probably the most insightful person I've ever seen. One of my favorite of your posts!!!

I know a teacher that was having to deal with a problem child in her classroom. When the shit finally hit the fan and she had enough, the TEACHER was fired for loosing her temper at the child. With that kind of attitude towards faculty it’s no wonder many are afraid to confront problem children and the parents that enable them.

"System failure" is Florida's unofficial state motto.

Thank You, Dr. Grande!!! You said a lot in this analysis, you hinted at some uncomfortable truths and I am grateful to you for doing so.

Hello this is Dr.usurper. Today I'll be analyzing the case of Dr.Grande and the disappearance of his plants.

It seems as though mental health disorders are unimportant in this world. People are more concerned with how they look, what they wear, and what they drive. And I definitely feel that many family members ignore important signs.

Really wonderful analysis, Dr. Grande-this was concise and articulated well. I agree so much with this, not only in cases of more extreme behaviors like Nikolas', but also for a lot of people-that a more collaborative effort of professionals and practitioners have to come together to give people the best treatment outcomes possible. It is really cool to see professionals like you saying this and hopefully things are moving in this direction.

I love how he looks at and speaks about every case rationally and is always unbiased. He breaks the stereotypes we have about many mental health issues and that's very important, especially now that there is a lot of false and distorted information scattered around the internet. Thank you for that.

I only met him once, at his job. He seemed so normal...was unimaginably eerie to see him on the news a few months later

This whole family is such a disaster due to alcohol and drug use! The poor sister, very sad story on so many levels. Thanks for your analysis. Way too complicated for pat answers!

Not hard to believe that another ball was dropped. The authorities never cease to amaze me how often they just screw the whole thing up. And now all these people are dead and many wounded. Very disturbing situation.

Let’s stop naming our kids Scott Peterson

Really love the format of your videos

Woooooo let's gooooo! Always looking forward to Dr. Grande dropping another vid!!!

This case is so tragic and it seems it could have been prevented if escalated concerns were taken more seriously. Thank you for educating us Dr Grande!💙💙

That’s why I just love listening to you on different Murder cases , you always have more knolage about things in and about the crimes ,things that were not put out there , thanks again Dr. For a great informative video ! When you want a the TRUETHs that’s why I come to hear you !

It's amazing and kind of sad how many times the local police, FBI, etc. all have advanced signs, warning, and reports from neighbors and family and yet nothing is ever done and more often than not it leads to tragedy.

I've seen similar clusters of problems (learning difficulties, attention deficit, impulsivity, aggression/hostility plus various antisocial behaviors, low empathy and emotional lability or depression/anhedonia) in clients a number of times, although never with such dramatic and tragic consequences. This is not the sort of problem you can solve with medication.

Excellent analysis as always! Unfortunately, just like with the Columbine tragedy, so many warning signs were not taken seriously and were not acted upon by the parents, police, teachers. To stop school shootings, the red flags must be taken seriously and they must never be ignored.

Only in Florida would these warning signs still be murky or unclear.

Finally I’ve been waiting for this vid I was requesting it all the time

I am so heart broken for this young man. The system did fail and is failing lots of young people with mental illness.

I see dr grande I click regardless of how sad the case is

As for the hearing voices bit, he actually didn’t make that claim until after the shooting and his arrest. He was caught telling many inconsistencies regarding it and while it’s a part of his defense, it’s generally believed that he made it up as a way to be unfit for trial.

Always nice to watch your videos, i learn a lot docter Grande. Greetings from Belgium🙌🍀

I'm the foster parent of a kid with ADHD who's doing great. I would like to suggest trauma had a role to play in behavioral issues too. Regarding communication... It's pathetic. School and therapist are not communicating. The therapist had to fax a form to school district coordinator to get an IEP.

I appreciate this video. When I saw the video of his brother visiting him in custody, apologizing for not being there for him, I could feel some of the pain Mr. Cruz had built up inside. Ever since then, I knew there was more to learn about this kid. Now I keep finding out more and more about how he needed help and gave so many warning signs that were ignored. I see an overarching theme of rejection that experienced throughout his entire life. It breaks my heart for everyone involved. I hope we can learn from this and reach out when we see someone needs help. In such a state, I imagine every little thing, like being told by the "love of his life" to leave her alone, could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Pink is your colour dr grande 👊

You mentioned his dad was addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol, and his mom was arrested 17 times. You can just say "his parents are from Florida", the rest is implied.

It’s heartbreaking to hear that the students knew who it was while it was happening. What’s even more sad is the fact that Freshman didn’t know Cruz so we’re not aware of what he’d do as much as the other students who knew Cruz would. Watched David Hogs video where he’s hiding during the shooting and he straight up says it’s Cruz before it was even confirmed. Shits crazy and insanely sad. I have yet to have a kid sadly but my siblings have all been blessed with little life’s and it kills me that when they go to Kinder-garden it’s essentially the same as going to war now and it gives me extreme anxiety. In my home town we almost had a school shooter as someone planned it out and we knew it was going to happen so the school locked down in prep except it didn’t happen. Later on we found out it didn’t happen cus he ended up blowing his own brains out in his room before he made it to the school. Parents found him later that day. Heartbreaking

So many saw what was going on.. my grands always says... everybody is waiting for Somebody to do something and nothing gets done. I’ve seen many parents indulge their kids thinking it makes their job(as a parent, their responsibility) easier on them. I have not seen a positive result in my 20 years of teaching preschool 😔

This case is so incredibly frustrating. All the warning signs were there... While I understand that we can't just arrest or commit people who MIGHT do something to harm themselves or others, when there are this many causes for concern, and those concerns are expressed repeatedly by family, school officials, and health professionals, involuntary committal should be mandatory. Especially in cases where these people make specific threats. This would actually be a good way to weed out those who are serious and those who aren't. If these people knew they could be committed for shooting their mouths off they'd probably stop making empty threats. If they knew they could be committed and still couldn't help themselves from making threats, then it would be clear that they had no self control, and they would definitely need to be evaluated

I'd really like you to revisit this case, since we're now partway through the trial. My questions are: 1. Does he have antisocial personality disorder? 2. Does fetal alcohol spectrum disorder really affect how someone is treated, from a psychiatric point-of-view? 3. If not, what's the point in proving whether he has FASD or not? 4. I know that narcissism is not a condition, but narcissistic personality disorder is. What are the differences, and does he exhibit any of the traits? Last question, and it's a rhetorical one: How could the system--every single aspect of it--have failed him so completely?

i love the ad read. your calm voice makes all fears of hacking shrink.

This NEVER should have happened. All the signs were there. Just look at his birth mother.

This was great! I enjoyed learning the facts! Thanks.

Good lord, this kid was screaming for help for most of his life. That so many people heard it but did nothing about it isn't just a failure of the system, it's a failure of our society. We live in a reactive society instead of a preventative one. No one wants to do anything until it's too late. "Someone else will deal with it" may as well replace "e pluribus unum" as the national motto. We're being held together with bandaids and duct tape.

The whole "demon" thing was a complete lie and he was trying to get off on an insanity plea. If you watch the interrogation, this becomes very clear, so I think we can rule out the psychosis.

When i have my doubts and gaps in a case, i m watching Dr Grande. Thank you 💗😊

Just bought the audible version of your book Psychology of Notorious Serial Killers. I hope the narrator has a similar calming voice as Dr Grande's.

Aaaaaaah yeaaaah 😍 another sponsor for dr. Grande 💜💙💚

I’m so glad you’re speaking up ..!!! We can’t keep ignoring Mental Health, mental development is part of physical development. I WISH all doctors who know better will help us all !

Talk about a Baader Meinhof moment. Just yesterday i was watching your video about Scot Peterson and i was wondering why you didn't make one on Nikolas Cruz. Thanks Dr. Grande!

Dr Grande is probably my favourite daily poster on this platform. The videos are always so professional, but the cadence and humour make it feel like a conversation with a well educated friend. Very pleased to see sponsors on board.

A bit off topic but Dr. Grande's voice is so soothing I didn't even mind the ad. You should do audio books!

My condolences 💐 to the family of those who lost their loved ones. ♥️ Thank you, Dr. Grande

Wow.. what did he have to do to make them listen? 👀👀👀 This is incredibly worrisome. Circumstances like this make me never want to send my future children to school.

Going into a psychology degree, this is what terrifies me the most. People that you can't help, because they don't want your help, and then they do stuff like this to themselves or others. Even if they don't go to the worst possible outcome, what do you do about them? How do you help them? Can you help them?

Another Grande! Thank you. Love these.

I know what it's like to feel like a failed loser, but I've now mastered how to keep my heart hate free! 🙏👍❤️

Regarding ADHD and criminality: the linking factor likely lies in the prefrontal cortex. This region is important for evaluating consequences of actions and applying focused attention (i.e., during work for an employer) and it’s a notable site of changes associated with ADHD. Easy to see how compromise to these functions may contribute to criminality.

It's Grande time! My favorite time of day.👍🏼

I would really like Dr Grande to break down philosophical theories as well. anyone agrees?

Thank you for posting this Dr. Grande. I appreciate your thorough analysis and energy. I must say that we are failing our children as a whole society. Pointing the fingers at particular organizations, providers, etc., will not change what is happening in this country. I've worked in Mental and Behavioral Health for quite some time and I see this disturbing pattern of inadequate care. However, our communities MUST find a way to work together to change this. Like for saying, "It takes a community to raise a child." Until we wake up and work together, things will continue to get worse and our society and children will continue to stay ill. Thank you again.

Could you analyze Cho Seung-Hui - the perpetrator of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting? I'm from Virginia and he attended my high school freshman year, and completed his sophomore, junior, and senior years at a neighboring high school. I knew several people who knew victims of that shooting, although I did not know any victims first hand.

Love your content a lot Dr. Grande!

You really put a finger on how the systems designed to help a kid like this often aren't in coordination w one another. Or simply don't have solutions. I hope this helps people to connect the dots. Gaps in our safety net system lead to kids like this falling through cracks. The only thing good that might come of this tragedy, is a closer look at how our system can better serve these kids and their families. But you've left out Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Reactive Attachment Disorder as factors, critical factors.

Not everyone can be easily categorized. What a sad thing to happen with all the signs out there. Thank you for your amazing analysis Dr. Grande!

Cruz may provide usable data at some point down the line, especially if he is on the right medication with the right doctors. What a horrible tragedy. I was not aware of his bio mother's criminal history until now, thank you for your research and observation.

Something that I learned about individuals living with mental health conditions related to NPD, ASPD, impulsivity, needing anger management, etc. is that sometimes individuals experience being on survival mode all the time. The individual can struggle with understanding how they can feel safe, who they can trust, and how to demonstrate genuinely clear headed behaviors; not just being a good actor acting in a way that people think they want them to act. Sometimes I think there is a hard line between teaching compliance; or appropriate conforming (if there is such a thing)? - And how to demonstrate that just because you do good, it does not necessarily mean vulnerability, or that vulnerability is always a bad thing. Getting hurt or experiencing injustice is almost always inevitable, but how to respond to those events can make all the difference. Sure, Nikolas had his experiences. But that does not mean everyone deserved to suffer because he suffered. It's arguably almost easy to teach boundaries to teach people who struggle with depression or anxiety how to exercise boundaries, to communicate assertively, etc. But it is a different ball game teaching interventions to individuals that really have no problem fighting back. Even if it means committing a crime against others. I'm still learning as I go and am new to the clinical game but any insight helps. The hardest part for me is trying to do my job and the frustrations of working with a system that does not always work. I am in the system, but I'm not the system. If I had a client that did what Nikolas did, or worse, I don't know how I would be able to live with myself as a professional.

Excellent analysis, Dr. Grande! That's so unbelievable that someone could be so blatantly disturbed, and for so long, and still go unchecked....and then so many lives are lost! He literally sounds like the main character in a horror movie!

I get so excited getting a notification

The conclusion to this video is a very important message

I can't believe he hasn't been tried yet! 😱 Thank you for another amazing video, Dr. Grande. I hope you're taking care of yourself; it surely isn't easy to make videos about such dark topics ☹️

Man, I enjoy this channel. Glad I found it