Cruz was with the Sneads for a month. That’s it. They didn’t have time to see the warning signs. He wasn’t expelled in that time. He was no longer with high school friends who could tell them about him. Since he was now out of high school, I doubt his coworkers at dollar tree got any warning signs from Cruz.
Sorry but you people in your unbridled anger are criticizing the wrong people in blaming the Sneads. Cruz didn’t live with them long enough to have been able to see the warning signs. I don’t care if they let him have guns. All they knew was that he was depressed over the recent death of his mother.
They chalked everything up to that. They had no clue he was mentally ill, or had been expelled from school, or had police called to his mothers 39 times. He was not a friend of Cruz’s mother. Some go between asked them to take him in. The Snead’s didn’t know Cruz before they took him in and just thought he was a depressed kid because he his mother just died and he had no father.
The FBI blew this. They had genuine tips from people how violent he was and how likely he was to act on it.
The Sneads just knew Cruz as a depressed teen they took in for a month before he shot up the school. They are blameless.
You people are very unreasonable to blame them. You are wrong to blame them. They had nothing to do with his upbringing and were with him too short a time to have been able to see the warning signs. They certainly had no one give them any background information on him either.
My God you people are judgmental and rash. Where is reason?
That’s an ok argument. But I think a lot of people are wondering why they allowed him such privileges since he was an adult, effectively out of school, on his own, and attempting to work. I can only assume the next step was self-sustenance. It would seem to be among a set of common sense/courtesy rules...no smoking in the house, no girls in your bedroom or overnight, no dogs. And among those sorts of restrictions - no guns would have to among those. It really has nothing to do with guns really - just practical priorities. If you can’t put a roof over your head - maybe you have better things to spend your money on than an arsenal of weapons...or maintain a dog...or a woman. Priorities. I think those are reasonable restrictions and no one should fear being seen as “anti-gun” for asking a transient guest to live within those boundaries.
I think these folks who took him in saw him through the eyes of their son, who was still in high school - more like a kid - and not an adult.
But I think those are the questions - not so much what they really knew about the kid.
I am giving them the benefit of the doubt. Like I said, we need more information before coming to a judgement. I have taken in teens who were friends of my daughters. I wouldnt have allowed the guns in the house, or at least not allow the boarder access to them while living with me though.
I don’t think anyone here is putting any blame whatsoever on this family for what Cruz ultimately did. It’s all on him. That goes without saying, but I just wanted to be clear.
But thanks for clearing that up. Was curious how blindsided this family was about the kid (young adult actually) Like how well they knew him or his past. That would have made all the difference in their decision to allow him to bring in his firearms imo. If even that in his state of depression was not a good idea. Not that he couldn’t have stashed them elsewhere and retrieve at his leisure.... but they seem to be good Samaritans regardless. I just found it ironic the husband works for the government. It perked up my conspiracy theorist antenna for a moment :)