Zachary Cruz was well-acquainted with older brother Nikolas Cruz's rages even before the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where he killed 17 people.
In an interview with the Miami Herald, Zachary Cruz, 18, said a few months before the shooting rampage, his 19-year-old brother threatened to shoot him over a jar of Nutella.
Zachary told the news outlet that Nikolas grabbed a new jar just brought home from the store by their mother, Lynda Cruz, unscrewed the lid, scooped out the gooey contents with his unwashed hand then licked his sticky fingers. Then he dipped into the jar again.
Appalled at his manners, Zachary said he pushed or slapped the jar out of his brother's hands — and Nikolas ran upstairs, grabbed a long gun from his bedroom closet, went back downstairs to load it and pointed it at Zachary in front of their mom.
"If you're gonna shoot me, shoot me!" Zachary said he shouted.
But the rage receded and Nikolas went back upstairs, stashed the gun and sat down to watch TV, Zachary related.
"After that day, I never messed with him again," he told the Herald.
Nikolas even threatened their mom, Zachary said.
"Nik got his AR-15 and put it to my mom's head," Zachary said of the September incident. "He was yelling at her because she wouldn't take him to a cabin."
"He yelled at her and said, 'I'm gonna blow your [expletive] brains out!' "
The mom jumped in her car and fled, Zachary told the Herald.
"He was in the middle of the driveway, in the middle of the street with his AR-15," Zachary told the Herald. "I had 911 ready to go on my phone. I was scared. I think he just came up and he put his gun away and I hung up."
After that, his mother feared confronting Nikolas as well, Zachary told the Herald.
"My heart still feels heavy because of all of it," Zachary told the news outlet. "I should have stepped up. He had nobody."
"A lot of people failed him," he added. "Including me."
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