photo credit:  pio3 // Shutterstock

The teenager who opened fire in a Parkland, Florida high school, killing 17 people, was recently “adopted” by a friend’s family after his mother passed away in November.

Kimberley and James Snead are now calling Nikolas Cruz a “monster”. The 19-year-old was a friend of their son, so they decided to take him in after the death of his mother. They said Cruz was lonely and depressed, but there were no warning signs that the school shooting would happen.

The family helped him get back on his feet, registering him in adult education classes and even helped him get a job at the local pound shop. They even took on the role of teaching him how to do basic chores like how to cook, use the microwave, wash his clothes, and tidy himself up.

The family did allow him to store his gun safety in the house in a locked box under his bed. Cruz has confirmed to police that he was “the gunman who entered the school campus armed with a AR-15 and began shooting students that he saw on the hallways and on the school grounds”.

Written by Clarke Jones