Quote:On the day an 11th grader named Nikolas Cruz told another student that he had a gun at home and was thinking of using it, two guidance counselors and a sheriff’s deputy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., concluded that he should be forcibly committed for psychiatric evaluation, according to mental health records obtained on Sunday by The New York Times.

An involuntary commitment of that kind, under the authority of a Florida state law known as the Baker Act, could have kept Mr. Cruz from passing a background check required to buy a firearm.

But Mr. Cruz appears never to have been institutionalized despite making threats to himself and others, cutting his arms with a pencil sharpener and claiming he had drunk gasoline in a possible attempt to kill himself, all in a five-day period in September 2016.

The revelation that school officials considered trying to commit Mr. Cruz under the Baker Act in 2016 appeared to be another in a string of missed opportunities to deal with the troubled young man. He went on to commit one of the deadliest school massacres in American history last month, killing 17 people and wounding 17 more using a gun he bought legally.

Quote:The mental health records, first reported by The Sun Sentinel of South Florida and The Associated Press, form part of the criminal case against Mr. Cruz, 19, who has been charged with murder and attempted murder in a 34-count indictment. Prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

The records are from Henderson Behavioral Health, a local clinic that school officials called for help dealing with Mr. Cruz. The clinic sent a mobile assistance team to Stoneman Douglas High on Sept. 28, 2016, the records show, because Mr. Cruz had made threats and exhibited disturbing behavior following a breakup with a girlfriend. Mr. Cruz was also said to be upset that his mother, Lynda Cruz, would not let him get an identification card required to buy a gun. He wrote “kill” in a notebook in anger over her refusal, he told a counselor.

Mr. Cruz denied telling another student that he wanted to use a gun or that he had ingested gasoline, the documents say. He also said he would not hurt his mother.

Five days earlier, on Sept. 23, the day before Mr. Cruz turned 18, Ms. Cruz had summoned a different Henderson clinician to her home because Mr. Cruz was verbally aggressive and “punching holes in the wall.”

The clinician who wrote the Sept. 28 report concluded that Mr. Cruz “did not meet criteria for further assessment.” The sheriff’s deputy at the school, Scot Peterson, told a clinician that he wanted to initiate a Baker Act request against Mr. Cruz anyway, the records show, and two school counselors agreed. Under the law, he could have been held for at least three days of evaluation.

Deputy Peterson also said he would search Mr. Cruz’s home for a gun. And the Florida Department of Children and Families was called in to investigate.

But while the sheriff’s office did visit the Cruz home, Deputy Peterson apparently changed his mind about the commitment request the next day. One of the guidance counselors told the Henderson clinic that the deputy had decided Mr. Cruz did not fit the criteria for involuntary commitment. Clinicians had repeatedly concluded that the Baker Act would not justify committing Mr. Cruz because he denied having an intent or a plan to hurt himself or others.

Quote:Unable or unwilling to try to forcibly commit Mr. Cruz, the school drafted a safety plan that prohibited him from bringing a backpack to school. He was also barred from practicing shooting skills with the Junior R.O.T.C. organization at the school, which he had joined.

In November 2016, Mr. Cruz refused any more special education assistance in school, as was his right since he had turned 18, and his mother agreed, according to Robert W. Runcie, superintendent of the Broward County Public Schools. Mr. Cruz’s behavior deteriorated over the following months until Feb. 8, 2017, when he was transferred to an alternative learning center.

Three days later, Mr. Cruz purchased the AR-15 rifle.