The mother of the suspect who shot Parkland allowed him to buy weapons, according to an investigative commission

Receive last minute alerts and special reports. SUNRISE, Florida – An investigative commission on the Florida high school massacre learned Tuesday that the late mother of the suspect had allowed him to buy a firearm despite his mental health counselors .

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, Chair of the Public Safety Commission of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, told members that Lynda Cruz was a "facilitator" who was hampering efforts to look after his son Nikolas Cruz

. "If he wants to have a gun, he could have a gun," Gualtieri Lynda Cruz told his advisers. Lynda Cruz died in November, three months before investigators say her 19-year-old son killed 17 at school on Valentine's Day

Mental health counselors have had at least 140 contacts with Nikolas Cruz over the years, trying to help him, but his mother frequently interfered.

School and government records obtained by the Associated Press and other media shortly after the shooting of Nikolas Cruz were diagnosed as having a developmental delay at the age of 3 years and included Discipline problems dating back to high school. In February 2014, while he was in eighth grade, Nikolas Cruz was transferred to a school for children with emotional and behavioral problems. He stayed until the 10th grade when he was transferred to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. About a year before the attack, Cruz was expelled from school and sent to an alternative school.

On September 28, 2016, an investigator from the Department of Children and Families of Florida visited Nikolas Cruz and his mother after he posted a video on Snapchat showing him cut. The report showed that he had written a racial epithet against African Americans and a Nazi symbol on his book bag, which his mother had forced him to erase. The investigator said that Nikolas Cruz was suffering from depression and medication and had told Lynda Cruz that he was planning to buy a gun, but that she could not determine why.

The commission brings together law enforcement, education and mental health officials. and the parents of the student victims. He will prepare a report by January 1st.