Father who opened home to Fla. gunman grapples with mass shooting
The father who took in the Florida school shooter after his mother died says he’s struggling to cope with the mass killing.
“We are going through a lot,” James Snead said outside his home Friday. “We are hurting right now.”
Snead spoke out for the first time two days after a maniacal teen gunman murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Nikolas Cruz, 19, a deeply troubled loner who was obsessed with weapons and violence, confessed to the crime, authorities said.
The Snead family opened their home to Cruz after his mother died suddenly of complications to the flu last November.
“They had no idea that this kid was capable of this,” family lawyer Jim Lewis told the Palm Beach Post.
“They were just trying to give him a place to live, and now the world has gone crazy.”
RELATED: A timeline of how the Florida high school shooting unfolded
Wednesday, February 14, 2018: Sometime after 2 p.m. the gunman begins to make his approach to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale.
(Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
2:30 p.m.: The shooting begins.
According to CNN, people first heard shots at 2:30 p.m. Several witnesses have said the gunman pulled the fire alarm before shooting so that people would run into his line of fire.
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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all hell is breaking loose at Douglas high school @Coralspringsfla kids texting about a shooter ???? https://t.co/7NnoipVJpy
2:53 p.m.: Twenty minutes later the Broward County Sheriff's Office publicly acknowledges that a shooting is underway.
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#BSO is working a developing incident regarding a report of active shooter located at 5901 Pine Island Rd, Parkland… https://t.co/zrKtdjDxcb
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JUST IN (warning, disturbing video): Cell phone video inside the school as shots were going off at Marjory Stoneman… https://t.co/UAHNy8LnAu
2:55 p.m.: Local media report five injuries in the shooting, the first sense of its scale.
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Appears there are at least 5 people injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Coral Springs after reports… https://t.co/GB3K6tliYy
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Avoid the area of Stoneman Douglas HS. #BSO is currently working a developing incident regarding a report of active shooter.
3:10 p.m.: A student tweets an image of the inside of his classroom where he and classmates are hiding.
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Still locked in. I checked the local news and there is 20 victims. Long live Majory Stoneman Douglas High. https://t.co/4kQMAlCBWt
3:11 p.m.: Sheriffs confirm that the shooter remains at large.
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Follow @browardsheriff for latest info on the #stonemanshooting. Shooter still at large.
3:15 p.m.: Students are seen running from the school grounds.
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MORE: Aerial footage above Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shows students running from grounds of campus after… https://t.co/riKt7KAbT4
Deputies said that Cruz tried to hide himself among the students running away from the shooting.
They eventually identified him by examining surveillance footage and picking him out from the crowd. A witness told the Miami Herald newspaper that Cruz had put on a military ROTC uniform like those used in class while he was running.
(John McCall/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
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Possible suspect in custody in #FloridaShooting #StonemanShooting. @wsvn https://t.co/gxisLcEVGf
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My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or an… https://t.co/RFJxgM1jhm
Shortly after the tweet, some students who survived the shooting responded in anger.
(Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
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Shooter is now in custody. Scene is still active. #stonemanshooting
4:27 p.m.: Cruz exhibits "labored breathing" after his arrest and was taken to hospital as a precaution. Local news outlets photographed him being loaded up for the journey.
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Photo: Suspect is loaded into fire rescue to be transported to hospital https://t.co/SP0rJg5tY5
4:22 p.m.: Sheriffs say 14 people were shot. The figure later increases.
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So far we have at least 14 victims. Victims have been and continue to be transported to Broward Health Medical Cent… https://t.co/hWUp5BuMcB
4:30 p.m.: The Associated Press reports that the shooting resulted in "numerous fatalities," the first indication that victims had died.
(John McCall/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
4:34 p.m.: The first videos of the arrest emerge.
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#NEW: Longer video of suspect arrested @wsvn https://t.co/2ZHmCd69rV
4:59 p.m.: Sheriffs say students are still inside the school and are being removed from classrooms by SWAT teams. The school has about 3,100 students.
(John McCall/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
5:15 p.m.: Video on social media shows SWAT teams evacuating students from their hiding places.
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My little brother just sent me this video of the swat team evacuating his classroom at stoneman douglas. So scary b… https://t.co/inomdpbpmS
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UPDATE: US official: Parkland school shooter identified as Nicolas Cruz.
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Parents and families of Westglades Middle School can now pick-up students at the school. Pine Island Road has been… https://t.co/Pkg6ixPiBR
6:27 p.m.: Authorities confirm deaths for the first time (previous statements referred only to "victims"). Their death toll is 17.
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Business Insider has been keeping track of the identities of those killed and wounded in the attack. Click here for a full rundown.
7:36 p.m.: Media outlets are allowed to get close to the outside of the school. The local channel WSVN broadcasts footage of classroom windows with bullet hotels.
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A window riddled with bullet holes could be seen at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in #Parkland https://t.co/aQ0zei1FX9
8:24 p.m.: A local correspondent tweets a clear photograph of the suspect.
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#BREAKING: Extremely clear picture of suspect captured by police @wsvn https://t.co/v4AiyIFFs1
Thursday 15th February, 5:39 a.m.: Reporters watch Cruz getting booked in to the Broward County Jail.
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BREAKING: deputies bring suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz to Broward County Jail @WPLGLocal10 #StonemanHighSchool https://t.co/718lffPkMo
Around 6:30 a.m.: Sheriffs publish jail booking details for Cruz, including his mugshot. He is charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
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The entry is hosted on the Broward County Sheriff's website.
It lists Cruz's date of birth, physical characteristics, and lists the 17 separate murders with which he has been charged.
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So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavi… https://t.co/3mSYrtTng6
8:22 a.m.: A teen who survived the shooting pleads for action, saying "we're children. you guys are the adults. You need to take some action and play a role."
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David Hogg survivor of Fl. school shooting: "we're children. you guys are the adults. you need to take some action… https://t.co/6KXQuGpDxd
Throughout the morning, we learn new details about Cruz's personal history. Cruz was adopted. He had been living with the family of a classmates since both of his adoptive parents are deceased, ABC News reported.
(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
8:33 a.m.: BuzzFeed News' Tom Namako reports that Cruz legally purchased the AR-15 that he used to carry out the shooting.
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BREAKING: Law enforcement official: Ex-student suspected in Florida school shooting legally purchased AR-15 rifle about a year ago.
Around 10:30 a.m.: FBI special agent Robert Lasky confirms that a YouTube user named Nikolas Cruz posted, "I'm going to be a professional school shooter" in the comments section of a video in September.
The FBI was unable to confirm whether the account that made the comment belonged to Cruz, the suspected school shooter.
(Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
11 a.m.: Trump addresses the country.
"It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference," Trump said. "We must actually make that difference."
The speech focused on combatting mental health. Trump also said he plans to visit Parkland to console families and local officials at some point in the near future.
(AFP/Getty Images)
After Trump's speech, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he intends to meet with state leaders next week in Tallahassee to discuss potential legislation dealing with mental health.
"The violence has to stop. We cannot lose another child in this country to violence in a school," Scott said at a news conference on Thursday. "If someone is mentally ill, they should not have access to a gun … None of us want anything like this to happen again."
(Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
12:12 p.m.: Former President Barack Obama tweets in support of "common-sense gun safety laws."
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We are grieving with Parkland. But we are not powerless. Caring for our kids is our first job. And until we can hon… https://t.co/LWGSkzRapH
12:51 p.m.: The AP reports that the leader of a white nationalist group — called the Republic of Florida — claimed Cruz was a member of the organization.
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Jordan Jereb told The Associated Press that his group, Republic of Florida, wants Florida to become its own white ethno-state. ROF describes itself as a "white civil rights organization fighting for white identitarian politics," according to the Anti-Defamation League.
He added that he didn't know Cruz personally and that Cruz "acted on his own behalf of what he just did and he's solely responsible for what he just did."
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Leader of white nationalist group has confirmed suspect in Florida school shooting was member of his organization
Around 2 p.m.: A judge ordered Cruz held without bond on 17 murder charges.
(Susan Stocker/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
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The Sneads allowed Cruz to store his gun, a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, in his bedroom on the condition that it be kept in a lockbox.
But the struggling teen, who suffered from depression and was devastated by the death of his mother, never gave any indication that he was planning to commit violence, the lawyer said.
“They didn’t see anything,” Lewis said.
“The mother said if they had any suspicious that he was violent, was capable of anything like this, he would have never stepped foot in her house.”
Cruz was placed under a suicide watch at the county jail Thursday after he was ordered held without bond on 17 counts of premeditated murder.
His defense lawyer described him as “an emotionally broken young man.”
“He has been through a lot of trauma,” added public defender Gordon Weekes. “He has suffered significant mental illness and significant mental trauma.”
Edgar Sandoval reporting in Parkland, Fla.
RELATED: Vigils held after deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida
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