Parkland Killer Bought 10 Guns In Months Leading Up To School Massacre
The Stoneman Douglas shooter Nikolas Cruz in police custody on Thursday. Image by Getty
By Ari Feldman February 20, 2018
Nikolas Cruz, the gunman who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, bought ten guns in the months leading up to the massacre, CNN reported.
James and Kimberly Sneads, who were letting Cruz live with them after his mother’s death in November, told CNN that his gun purchases did not seem like a red flag to them. They said they felt safe because he stored the guns in a locked gun safe.
James Snead said that Cruz had been staying with another family before them, and was asked to move because the family did not feel safe having Cruz’s guns in the house with their toddler. The Sneads said they were not worried about the mix of Cruz’s reported depression and his multiple guns.
“To me, the depression was more stemmed from loss — losing his mother, not from all the things they said about him being bullied, or by — things that happened in school,” Kimberly Sneads said.
The owner of Gun World, a Florida gun store where Cruz bought two weapons, said both purchases followed Florida laws for gun sales. She declined to identify the types of guns or specify when they were purchased.
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
