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Tags: nikolas cruz | host family | didnt know | monster | under roof

Shooter's Host Family: 'We Had a Monster Living Under Our Roof, We Didn't Know'

Shooter's Host Family: 'We Had a Monster Living Under Our Roof, We Didn't Know'
This video screen grab image shows shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz on February 15, 2018 at Broward County Jail in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. (Miguel Guttierez/AFP?Getty Images)

By    |   Sunday, 18 February 2018 09:15 AM EST

A family that took in Nikolas Cruz after his adoptive mother died are now devastated by the thought “we had this monster living under our roof and didn’t know,” the Sun Sentinel reported.

In a wrenching interview with the South Florida news outlet, James and Kimberly Snead, who raised three sons, said when they welcomed Cruz into their Parkland home last Thanksgiving he seemed pleasant, and to be growing happier after the Nov. 1 pneumonia death of his mom.

“We had this monster living under our roof and we didn’t know,” Kimberly Snead told the Sun Sentinel. “We didn’t see this side of him.”

“Everything everybody seems to know, we didn’t know,” James Snead added. “It’s as simple as that.”

Cruz was living with the Sneads when he strode into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, armed with an AR-15 rifle, and killed 17 people. The Sneads’ son had asked if he could move in, and they agreed, knowing he was extremely depressed about his mother’s death.

“I told him there’d be rules and he followed every rule to the T,” James Snead told the outlet, adding they made Cruz buy a locking gun safe to keep a weapons stash that included the AR-15, two other assault-type rifles, knives, BB guns and pellet guns.

He only asked for permission to take the weapons out twice; they told the Sun Sentinel they said “yes” once and “no” once.

“He was very naïve. He wasn’t dumb, just naïve,” James Snead said, saying Cruz didn’t know how to cook or use a microwave, or how to do his own laundry. He rode a bicycle to work at a Dollar Tree.

They insisted he enlist in adult education classes and drove him to school each day. Kimberly Snead said she took him to her own therapist just five days before the shooting to set up sessions.

Kimberly Snead said she last saw Cruz around 10 a.m. last Wednesday; he’d told the family he didn’t have school and was going fishing.

Meanwhile, Cruz sent the couple’s son a few texts, asking in one what classroom the boy was in, and telling the son he was going to see a movie. Later he texted he had “something important” he wanted to tell the teen.

Then he wrote: “Nothing man.”

They believe those texts were sent during the Uber ride Cruz took to the murder scene.

His last text to their son, as Cruz pulled up at the school, said “Yo.”

Around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, their son called sounding panic-stricken, and reporting he’d heard shots fired on campus. Snead told his son to walk to Walmart and he’d come get him.

As Snead drove there, a SWAT commander called his cellphone and asked where his son Nik was; he said he didn’t know. He said he called the commander back and pleaded, “I need a police presence at my house. Go make sure my wife is OK.”

“I was fearing for her life,” he told the news outlet.”

Kimberly Snead said law enforcement showed up at the home with guns drawn yelling, “Put your hands up” — and Kimberly Snead let them in to search, though Cruz was already in custody elsewhere.

Their own son was being questioned by Broward County detectives. Later, Cruz was led into the building, handcuffed and wearing a hospital gown, surrounded by deputies, the couple recalled.

“Really, Nik? Really?” she yelled at him, the Sun Sentinel reported.

“He said he was sorry. He apologized. He looked lost, absolutely lost,” said James Snead. “And that was the last time we saw him.”

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Headline
A family that took in Nikolas Cruz after his adoptive mother died are now devastated by the thought "we had this monster living under our roof and didn't know," the Sun Sentinel reported.In a wrenching interview with the South Florida news outlet, James and Kimberly Snead,...
nikolas cruz, host family, didnt know, monster, under roof
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2018-15-18
Sunday, 18 February 2018 09:15 AM
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