The couple who had taken in Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz have said they had no idea that they had a 'monster' living under their roof.
Kimberly and James Snead have been left stunned that the 19-year-old boy they had taken in was capable of such an atrocity, after he stormed into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15 rifle and killed 17 people. It is the worst school shooting since Sandy Hook.
"We had this monster living under our roof and we didn't know," Kimberly Snead told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Saturday. "We didn't see this side of him."
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Her husband, James, added: "Everything everybody seems to know, we didn't know... It's as simple as that."
When Cruz's adoptive mother died of pneumonia at the beginning of November, he was left without parents. The Sneads' son then asked whether his friend could move into their home last Thanksgiving, and they agreed - quickly realising that he was depressed about his mother's death.
The couple have apparently grown up around guns and are comfortable around them, but have always insisted on gun safety. They had told Cruz there would be strict rules in their home.
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"I told him there'd be rules and he followed every rule to the T," James said.
That included making Cruz buy a locking gun safe to put in his room, as he had a handful of guns including the AR-15 and two other rifles, as well as knives, BB guns and pellet guns. James thought he had the only key for the safe, but figured that Cruz must have also kept one for himself.
The Sneads have said that Cruz's late mother seemed to have pampered and indulged him, and that he didn't know how to cook, use a microwave, do his own laundry or pick up after himself.
"He was very naïve. He wasn't dumb, just naïve," James said.
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They also explained that the night before the massacre seemed just like any other, but as the shooting unfurled James received a call from his panic-stricken son, who said that he was safe but that shots had been fired on campus.
A SWAT commander then called James to ask where Cruz was, which was when he remembered that the last he had known was that Cruz was at home alone with Kimberly.
He told them: "I need a police presence at my house. Go make sure my wife is OK."
After they were safely reunited, they were taken to Broward Sheriff's headquarters to meet their son. As they waited, Cruz was walked into the building.
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"He said he was sorry. He apologized. He looked lost, absolutely lost," James said. "And that was the last time we saw him."
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