After the Florida Shooting, Suspect Told One Thing to the Couple Who Took Him In

The Associated Press
By The Associated Press
February 19, 2018US News
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After the Florida Shooting, Suspect Told One Thing to the Couple Who Took Him In
Nikolas Cruz appears in a police booking photo, at Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 15, 2018. (Broward County Sheriff/Handout via Reuters)

Florida — The couple who took in the Florida school shooting suspect after his mother died says he told them he was sorry after the shooting.

Speaking Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” James and Kimberly Snead said they’ve only seen Nikolas Cruz once since the shooting that killed 17 when they briefly saw him at the police station.

Kimberly Snead says she yelled at him and “really wanted to strangle him more than anything.” The couple says Cruz told them he was sorry.

Cruz’s mother, Lynda Cruz, died Nov. 1, she was 68 at the time, according to the Sun-Sentinel. Her husband died years ago. Nikolas Cruz and his biological brother, Zachary, moved from Long Island to Broward County after their mother died. James and Kimberly Snead took him into their Parkland home.

The Sneads also said the person who’s been shown to the world since the shootings isn’t the person they knew when he lived with them. They said Cruz was very polite and followed all their rules.

Cruz is facing 17 counts of murder in the Wednesday afternoon shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

On Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, at least 17 people died when a gunman opened fire at a Florida school. Authorities identified the shooter as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz. He was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder for the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“We Didn’t See This Side of Him”

The Sun Sentinel published a story Sunday about the family, who said that what Nikolas Cruz did baffles them. “We had this monster living under our roof and we didn’t know,” Kimberly Snead told The Sun Sentinel on Saturday, “We didn’t see this side of him.”

They made Cruz buy a locking gun safe to put in his room the day he moved in. Cruz had a handful of guns, including the AR-15 and two other rifles that James Snead said would be considered assault rifles. Cruz, a hunter, also had knives, BB guns and pellet guns.

Snead thought he had the only key to the cabinet but has figured out Cruz must have kept a key for himself. The family kept their own rifles, bought after a burglary a couple of years ago, in a separate locked cabinet.

They told Cruz he needed to ask permission to take out the guns. He had asked only twice since November. They said “yes” once and “no” once.

The Associated Press

NTD Television writer Bowen Xiao contributed to this report.

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