From the AP:
A Florida couple regrets ever taking in a disturbed teenager in the months before he was accused of the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
In a letter that is part of a legal agreement to settle numerous civil lawsuits, James and Kimberly Snead said they should have believed what they were told — that Nikolas Cruz, now 21, was homicidal, untrustworthy and infatuated with firearms, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.
“We thought we could handle this troubled young man, unfortunately, we were wrong,” the Sneads said in a public apology revealed Tuesday. “We were particularly wrong to allow him to store his firearms in our house, including the AR-15 used in this tragedy.”
The settlement also calls for them to pay $1 to the victims’ families and forbids them and their attorney from speaking of or profiting from the story. The families of those killed in the Parkland high school shooting released the letter Tuesday during a conference call with the newspaper.
Andrew Pollack, whose daughter was killed, said he and other families of the victims pushed for the public apology.
“They didn’t want to accept accountability, and we forced it on them. For us, that’s why we’re here. We want accountability,” Pollack told the newspaper.
Jim Lewis, who represents the Sneads, said he had no comment, adding, “I agreed and signed to say nothing.”
Cruz was 19 when he entered the campus where he once attended classes, carrying an AR-15 rifle, authorities said. He went into the freshman building and killed 14 students, a teacher, a coach and the athletic director, prosecutors said.
The teen had been living with the Sneads for about 2½ months. He was orphaned when his mother died in 2017, and the Sneads were parents of one of his casual friends.
Cruz had spent several years at a special school for students with serious behavioral disorders and had been labeled “emotionally disturbed.”
In the letter, the Sneads said they “will forever regret” taking in Cruz, the newspaper reported..
“We did so believing we were helping a troubled young man who needed help,” the Sneads wrote. “We are profoundly sorry for the actions and inactions which may have contributed to Nikolas Cruz’s ability to carry out the murders on Feb. 14, 2018.”
The couple had told investigators they allowed Cruz to keep a collection of knives and guns at their home, including the assault-style rifle authorities said was used in the killing.
James Snead, an Army veteran, said the family had rifles in a gun safe.
The couple still say they thought Cruz’s guns were secure in a locked cabinet and only they had the key. But they now admit: “We were particularly wrong to allow him to store his firearms in our house.”
They were hit with more than a dozen civil lawsuits after the shootings.
In the letter, the Sneads admit that Rocxanne Deschamps, a neighbor of the Cruz family, warned them about the teen, the newspaper reported. Deschamps briefly took in Cruz after his mother died in November 2017, but kicked him out after arguments.
“Ms. Deschamps informed us of warning signs of his behavior which occurred in her home and that he had chosen to keep his rifle over continuing to live with her,” the Sneads wrote.
The letter also said they received an even more dire warning from Katherine Blaine, a New York cousin of Cruz’s mother.
“Kathy Blaine informed us that Nikolas Cruz was violent, dangerous, infatuated with guns and knives, untrustworthy and threatened to kill people on Instagram, among other things,” the letter said..
Blaine, reached by phone on Tuesday, told the newspaper: “I blame them for not listening to me; that’s what I blame them for. Why the hell didn’t you listen to Rocxanne and me, to get the guns away from him?”
The letter is meant to serve as a warning to others who may find themselves in a similar situation — wanting to help a teen in need. They advise making sure all firearms are securely locked, and frequent reviews of social media accounts.
“If they have a history or exhibit any warning signs you must immediately get him or her the professional help they need and contact law enforcement,” the letter states.
Oops !
What exactly are they ‘guilty’ of again?
Attempted rescue of a troubled orphan? Those BASTARDS!!!
No good deed goes unpunished
☝️What this guy says × 100!!!
I’ve a hard time seeing these people as guilty. Fact is these are not experts in mental health. The people who’s job it is to assess the nature of mental illness and take steps to protect the public safety screwed this up repeatedly over a long period of time. Why should foster parents, trying to d a good deed as so many do, why should they be judged for the failures of the highly educated and legally designated authorities who made bad choices not just one or twice, but dozens of times.
I get that families of the dead and injured are traumatized and lashing out at every possible target. Some of those targets deserve to be chained to a post and truly lashed within an inch of their lives.
Start with a certain Sheriff’s deputy assigned to that school, and work from there.
List of Paid DNC trolls on TTAG:
Enuf
Hannibal
Scott
Miner49er
Chief Sensor
Several of the parents acted so unethically that I think they deserve ostracism their selves. Their grief at losing a kid to the public school system does not give them the right to assault everyone they feel like. Life is hard, they are not special.
(not in reference to Enuf’s comment)
I love when some dumbass who shows up here one day and uses a throwaway handle tries to claim other people are paid trolls
Now, where’s my check, numbnuts?
I think what they’re saying is they’re guilty of being really stupid and exercising bad judgement after multiple people warned them of what kind of person he was and they failed to listen or at least secure his guns.
There are *thousands* of “troubled kids” adopted & fostered into families every year.
Which ones do you think should remain orphans?
The werw stupid, naive, and probably afraid to confront him over his behavior. People died and our rights took a hit.
You would probably done the same rhing.
Brain works on math, gotta be that guy. — None of this “don’t sue us” settlement-agreement apologizing on the part of the Sneads explains away the earlier problems with the story – let’s see how many I can recall: Cruz wasn’t at school, he was called to come to school (and an Uber or Cab was provided to him by -someone- in order for him to do so) the driver of which later reported that Cruz had a ‘big black bag’ of (presumably guns) with him and carried it into the school. No discussion of what he was wearing?
Students at the school reported seeing Cruz, and that he was in street clothes, didn’t have a big black bag, didn’t know why he’d been called there, and was standing in the students’ presence when the gunshots were heard, real-time, from elsewhere.
The gunman (said to be Cruz, but ?) was in a different section of the school, shooting people, and apparently dressed in black, masked iirc, also — as always — there were reports of their being More than one person doing the shootings.
Local law enforcement were doing their standdown act, piled up outside in their cars and near the exits. Despite this, Cruz, in street clothes and no big black bag (so where is That?), sauntered out of and away from the school .. to be acquired sometime later, some distance away, with no sense of alarm or attempts to escape or elude.
Now go back to Cruz entering and leaving the school (and from which section or sections he did so). The school, and its stairwells, are littered with video cameras. No one can come or go without being on them. The video was never made public? (This is a statement and a question. There were rampant excuses for ‘why’ there was no video evidence, but I haven’t paid one moment’s attention to any of this since Daisy Hogg burned through his 15 minutes some years ago.)
I’m not the head of Cruz’s fan club, just saying that it’s more difficult than some might think to be conversing with people, one of them a popular pretty female, while simultaneously being elsewhere, iirc essentially a different building, in a different outfit, gunning people down. And (Vampire?) none of it being on video. But again, I’m years out on the video question.
Let’s ask someone familiar with the case:
“Jim Lewis, who represents the Sneads, said he had no comment, adding, “I agreed and signed to say nothing.”
… So they gagged the lawyer, too. Well, dang. Luckily, Broward County is 100% above board and nothing sketchy ever goes down, there.
(Won’t come back to argue this. Practically don’t care. Just saying. —- But, scoffers should provide Links, not just incredulity. Live long and Spock thingy.)
you are one bat shit crazy mufu…… damn
is he still able to vote
vote our beloved President TRUMP
Make America Great Again
I’m sure he will be voting early and often this fall.
Ahhhhh the perils of trying to be nice…….Most of the time it doesn’t pay!
Jeopardy Question: Who won’t be on the cover of Psychology Today?
No cure or even treatment for STUPIDITY.
This kid obviously belongs where he ended up, only due to the Progressive Officials and nature of the system in Broward County, it did not happen until it was too late.
Makes you ask “Was this the plan all along?”
This couple bear great responsibility for the murders carried out by Cruz. They housed and fed him. They stored his guns in their home. They knew he was violent and was obsessed with guns and knives. Yet they allowed Cruz to bring his guns into their home and thought his guns were secure behind a key lock. A key lock
The victims families should be able to sue everyone one and every agency that knew the danger Cruz posed for damages.
Don’t forget to sue the gun manufacturer. They should have known it would have ended like this.
Remember that guy you dated last year, Jague? He threw a Molotov cocktail into a dollar store burning a little girl over 60% of her body.
It’s your fault, you heartless b!tch.
Tell that 17 year old with an AR you are housing he needs to get out and find another mooch.
I guess Jaque answers my question “what lowlife POS would sue these people” and “what scumsucking lawyer/judge would take part in such a “settlement””/
school shootings are way down
Gee I wonder why?
This shooting happened 19 years after Columbine. 19 years. The principal and school board failed the students, parents and community. How do they still have jobs?
Sometimes No matter what is done. You just can’t fix Crazy. In this case the Evil. Can only be Destroyed.
You can stop crazy from hurting people. Mental institutions used to do it. Prisons sometimes do it now. And if they fail, a fragment of metal propelled to 2,500 feet per second will do a good job.
The police were called on this, this…… “individual” over 40 times, and couldn’t seen to do shit. So he passed the FDLE background check and could legally buy guns. But if you spank your kid and he rats you out, you will go to jail. I think this anger is misplaced. I EXPECT do-gooders to be idiots, and am rarely surprised. And I expect more out of the State, and am regularly disappointed.
You nailed it. Aside from the shooter who should have been shivved in prison already, the school board and that jihadi loving ex sheriff Scott Israel bear responsibility for their bs programs that wouldn’t bust violent students (they got millions from obama admin for these failed programs). That and idiot local FBI that failed to follow up in tips.
And the idiot voters who are going to vote Israel back in. Or his sex partying successor.
Kid had been out of that school for several years, precisely because he was identified as crazy enough to be dangerous. The *ONLY* way this could have been stopped is by armed teachers and coaches, possibly janitors and office staff as well.
I thought this entire debacle couldn’t get stupider. I was wrong.
In high school a good friends family did something similar and took in a kid who turned out to a complete asshole and shot some body in the head over one of those “disraspek” arguments.
A parent can care so much for some strangers kid that they’re willing to put their own kids lives at risk. Makes zero sense.
But it was the fault of the company that made the A R machine gun, the super lethal atomic blaster ! Not the nice young evil psychopath . Sarc
I thought it was the ad’s fault? Time to sue the marketing company. /s
Co worker of mine let her daughter’s boyfriend stay at the house when his family got evicted. Few weeks later he’s shot in a drive by, turns out he was dealing. He was slick and hid his business well.
Unlike these people she kicked him right out and her daughter washed her hands of him. Knowing about his troubles makes them culpable at worst and naive at best. I do think they are liable for damages, a lot more than the rest of gun owners are being saddled with responsibility.
It’s shocking they admit to knowing about all this.
Bull. He had been with them for 2 1/2 months, his parents for 19 years. Sue his parents because he was not raised right. OH! They are dead/uninvolved? So you have to look for someone else to blame? Try HIM! Good people trying to help do not deserve this shit. My kid brother was taken in by a stranger for 5 years when he and his stepmom couldn’t get along, that gent died a few years back and my brother mourned more than he did for either our Mom or Dad, remembering a fine and giving friend from 40 years ago, who stepped up when he desperately needed someone. And he’s a retired engineer who’s been married around 35 years, never put a foot wrong with the exception of driving too fast (runs in the family).
Hind sight is always 20/20. Seen many parents in my day who loved a child so much. They couldn’t/Wouldn’t see the truth. Some ended up in Prison. Some ended up Dead. Some turned the corner and ended up decent people,. Parenting is hard. For some it’s impossible. For some they should have never have had or be allowed to have children.
““They didn’t want to accept accountability, and we forced it on them.”
No, they gave an insincere apology, via coercion. Worth precisely nothing.
I hold the murderer 100 percent responsible for what happened, not those people…
Absolutely correct!
Exactly.
No good deed goes unpunished. Cruz lived under their roof. They are not responsible for his actions; he was legally an adult. They had no right to take his rifle or his knives. Although they could have kicked him out, that hardly imposes upon them a duty to control his conduct.
For example, I had a case where a landlord was sued because he rented an apartment to an ex-con, and someone got killed in the apartment. The argument was that if the LL had not rented, the murder wouldn’t have happened (there). The stupidity of the argument is that it means that no one can rent to anyone with a criminal record, and all persons released from prison might as well stay there because they will be living under a bridge or a tarp. Or that no one can rent to a person with mental problems that do not require hospitalization because of the risk that the person will go over the edge. The Nazis gassed “mentally defectives”; is that where we want to go? Because that is what will happen if suits against otherwise innocent property owners can be sued for someone else’s intentional misconduct.
“The Nazis gassed “mentally defectives”; is that where we want to go?”
Well……………… 🙂
(Of course not. That would be *wrong*… *cough*)
“The Nazis gassed “mentally defectives”; is that where we want to go?”
Only if based on their party registration.
Did the coward of broward ever apologize for hiding outside while kids were murdered? And if he did, fuck him.
The police union forced them to give him his job back with back pay.
And he’s running for re-election, and just may win…
Isn’t that just amazing?
Apologize for nothing, Cruz committed the crimes.
The fact that he wasn’t already in jail for previous violent acts points to the utter incompetence of the Broward government. These people are lucky to be alive and if they had denied him access to his gun he would have killed them to get that access. This kid looks almost as addled as the one in New Town who did just that.
How can anyone blame these volunteer parents when so many trained professional experts also failed to act.
So many trained and WELL PAID professional experts failed…
this and fixed it for ya!
Well, DUH??!!
How dumb….. what a comedy of errors…
And how in god’s name are these people “responsible” for what some neighbors kid did..
How’s that diversity working for the people at Stoneman Douglas?… these people shouldn’t even BE in this country…. THEY DON’T BELONG!
Compassion is a weakness. Take care of you and your own. Other people’s shit only serves to destroy what you have.
And we should run our country the same exact Fucking way.
Bingo!
If not for their involvement would anything have changed?
No. Not unless he was institutionalized. They shouldn’t face legal (including civil) punishments for his crime when their involvement was incidental. He was an adult. He obtained the rifles he used without their help. And they have to deal with this shit because they tried and failed?
Homer Simpson was right. The lesson is: never try.
I think this is perfect!
The settlement also calls for them to pay $1 to the victims’ families
that’s 99 cents more than they should have to pay, they stepped up to try to help when his family abandoned him and the city and the county and the state and FINALLY the feds!
and yet people blame them or are suing them for trying to be kind?
they tried and failed in their kindness…..when others who draw CITY-COUNTY AND FEDERAL checks missed their TIMES!!!! as in SEVERAL TIMES!!!!! to step up?
That $1 has to be a misprint. What’s the point of $1? And if it is $1, is that total? For everyone to divide? If that’s true, somebody signed up a crappy lawyer.
I *think* it’s kinda like when someone convicted of a DUI fatality gets sentenced to mail the dead kid’s family $1 every month or year. Supposed to ‘remind them what they had done’.
These people didn’t ‘do’ anything. Scott Israel is a POS who holds some actual responsibility, go after him and those who hired him…
It’s supposed to be them admitting that it’s their fault, which it isn’t.
He was a young adult, not a child. These people wanted to help out a young adult whose parent had died. They may even have charged him some rent or were trying to get him on a good path – good for them. IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT!!!!
They were trying to give this young adult a helping hand, showing him a normal environment. He was damaged goods, not this couples’ fault. Even if they had guns loaded and unlocked, it would be the same story – he was a young adult and his actions were his, alone. Why should this couple even be asked about blame?????
This couple should be allowed to seek recompense for their costs in the matter, the public shame, etc. Writing or having someone ghost write a book would be a start and a good warning to others. Maybe they should not profit, but any monies over their costs and loss of wages could go to a fund for children or young adults that need help.
We need more people around that are willing to help, whether they use religion or not.
Piss on the shame, I would hate to see their legal bills. In return for being caring and kind.
1-dont ever use these people’s names in articles.
2-Iam pretty sure the gov suits are still going right now. this was a small fish so less court dates.
Wow, just friggin wow. We as a country are truly in trouble if we are going to start blaming people for attempting to do good by taking a troubled youth into their lives. How could they have ever known the true evil within his heart, and now to blame them for their compassionate act. Just imagine if Colin Kapperdick had not been adopted by the same such good intentioned people. Well, maybe that is a bad example.
Fault only be at the feet of Cruz.
You . have . got . to . be . kidding . me !
The Snead couple who cared for that
little angelFVCKING MOSTER are somewhere down around 18 million in the roster of the 19 million Floridians who are most at fault for that FVCKING MONSTER’S psychotic break.Who is most at fault? Nikolas Cruz! Who else is hugely to blame:
a) Local, state, and federal prosecutors and law enforcement who refused to prosecute Nikolas Cruz for felony aggravated assault (for threatening to murder people).
b) School resource officer who refused to go into the school and stop that piece of $hit
c) Broward County Sheriff’s deputies who refused to go into the school and stop that piece of $hit.
d) All the useless bleeding-heart Progressives who insisted that we dismantle our mental health apparatus.
And if that FVCKING MONSTER had stored women’s feminine hygiene products at the Snead’s home and then used those products to torch the school and killed 20 people that way, would the Sneads have been equally wrong to have allowed that FVCKING MONSTER to keep those women’s feminine hygiene products in their home?
The obvious implication here is that Cruz’s infatuation with firearms renders him unfit to be among us in society and requires massive
reeducationmental health intervention. And yet if Nikolas Cruz was infatuated with being a “transgender woman”, the masses would have patted him on the back, congratulated him, and barked at society to accept him with open arms.But somehow, everyone would have fared much better if society would have refused to attempt to provide a safe haven and stability for a
mentally disturbedFVCKING PSYCHOPATH MONSTER. Got it.Ahhh! People in our nation are mentally soooooo far gone I cannot begin to imagine any way to alleviate it. How do these people manage to even tie their shoes?
“d) All the useless bleeding-heart Progressives who insisted that we dismantle our mental health apparatus.”
——————–
About the above point, I lived that era and ubserved close-hand, it was in no way just the lefties and liberals and soft hearted dogooders. The conservative side was lowd and heavily involved from the view of fiscal conservatism, cutting the taxpayer expense.
My learning on this came firstly from my mother’s work as a licensed RN. In her era, in her 50 year career, she had a ton of experience working in mental health hospitals and wards, along with all other areas of hospitals. For over a decade she spoke of the movement to eradicate care for the mentally ill, and how it would ending harming patients, the public, the families and burdening the prisons.
I saw this perfect storm of opposing parties finding common ground for a popular platform they could both dive into, squeeze it for political advantage and screw up mightily. They did exactly that, and we all the results today.
Virtually every targeted school shooting from Columbine forward can be shown to have been able to happen in large measure because the political left and right tore about our mental health infrastructure. The effort began in the 1950’s and culminated in the 1980’s.
One way I learned about this is an attempt was made in some state mental hospitals to assign “Trustee” patients to a transition program where they would be partnered with medical and nursing staff to reside weekdays in the worker’s home, returning weekends for assessments. We had one such trustee in our home home. It was odd but not threatening so far as I ever saw. One day tho the program was abruptly halted and all patients returned to the state hospital. My mother said something had gone wrong but she could not reveal details.
Anyway, that’s the story and the reality of what happened. There was a robust and extensive mental health system across the USA. But it all got torn apart out of the actions of do-gooders, fiscal conservatives, bleeding hearts and the political careerists.
We have the death and destruction hitting our news in the form of random slaughter to this very day.
More liberal lies from Enuf, the paid Marxist troll.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this worked up. It isn’t their fault. They couldn’t take his guns. He was an adult. He would have just left, just like he left the previous place. These people would have been spared the anguish, but Psycho Nick would have still killed.
I think the victims’ families should also sue the grocery stores who sold food to Cruz: clearly those grocery stores are accessories for providing food to Cruz — had they not provided food, Cruz would never have murdered 17 people.
And while they are at it, the victims’ families should also sue the companies who make the traffic signals on the roads that Cruz walked/biked/drove to the school: clearly those traffic signals helped Cruz get to that school and murder those victims and the traffic signal companies are thus responsible.
/end_sarcasm
Heaven forbid that anyone blame that monster himself and, less-so, that monster’s family who failed to raise a well-adjusted child. And Heaven forbid that we blame the school system which failed to compensate for the failures of Cruz’s family life.
On that last point, I would not normally place any blame on the school system. However, Progressives and Academia keep telling us how parents are utterly incompetent and how the school system knows better how to raise our children for us. Well, if Progressives and Academia are going to own it, then they better fvcking own it. Either parents are incompetent and the schools are far better to raise our children — but they failed to raise Cruz properly and are thus culpable — or NOT. Which is it?
When my own daughter was still in junior high school, (she’s in college now and doing well paying her way and working hard) I looked into what the school system was doing about violence prevention. What I learned is they were applying the lessons from the US Secret Service Safe School’s Initiative, along with other approaches to targeted violence within and directed at schools. I discussed these approaches with people in the field, with teachers, school admins, police resource officers and local politicians. When I was convinced on what worked I made an effort to share the information with as many of those local, county, state and Federal officials with authority over my region. Sharing with them links to info, even printing out and mailing copies of studies.
What happened in Florida is an example of those responsible applying the titles but not the substance. Claiming the best practices as a matter of political image and polishing the career picture, not truly applying the lessons learned. The problem is not with the techniques, it is the human commitment of those who’s responsibility it is to apply those techniques.
Morally, the failure to apply with a sense of personal honor and duty all that has been learned is a criminal failure in personal and official responsibility. Everyone in that loop deserve to lose their employment and live life in constant miserable/menial labor.
Or prison, prison is good too, but it does cost us money so … maybe prison is morally justified for a smaller sub-set of the human failures who should have done better. Who’s commitment to the defense of the lives of children int heir care was pathetic, and ultimately dishonorable.
About these foster parents, I could go either one their story. There have been so many tales of failure in what passes for a Mental Health system in this country, their story is all to familiar to one who has been on the sidelines observing that scene for decades. We tore that system apart, pretended to solve abuses and cut costs, but all we did was yank the rug out from under the mentally ill and throw the burden onto an ill prepared population.
The result has been a lot of low level violence and suffering few of you ever hear about, doesn’t make the 24 hour news cycle. But the big catastrophe’s you do hear about, and they all have the common thread of the problem was known and handled inadequately, or corrective actions were restrained by stupid laws and lack of funding.
Yes, we absolutely needed cops who would have run, rushed with weapon in hand, to the sound of the gun fire. We absolutely should have had armed defenders in the school at all times.
But if we properly applied, funded and committed to the lessons learned post-Columbine, those last line of defense measures would be ever more rarely needed.
It is far better t prevent an exchange of gunfire then to wait for the shooting to begin.
That’s a nice made up story.
My daughter craps bigger than enufs daughter.
Can anyone tell me why we should not hire retired police / L.E. for school security? hell they have 30 or more years dealing with shitheads. If you don’t trust them with a gun , who would you trust. School security these days is like hoping to see a unicorn. I blame liberals.
There is a specialist approach to being a School Resource Officer and not all cops are cut out for it. But I do agree, the retired officers would be a good candidate population to interview for some focused training on the unique environment of being a Guardian in elementary, junior and senior high schools along with colleges and universities. Begin with proven track record in law enforcement, demonstrated skill with firearms and add to that with specialized training in dealing with young people.
Wally, it would be far cheaper and a hundred times as effective to require every teacher to have a carry license and to carry every day, just like a police officer. Don’t like it? Find another job. These cops (retired or not) are drawing $60K a year, school will hire as few as possible, but there’s a teacher for every, what, 25 students? And while the resource officer is hiding behind a solid wall, the teacher is in the classroom with the shooter, trying to survive the day. Require training courses and pay for them, it is STILL cheaper than cops. And, pay the teachers the money wasted on cops. Finally (saved the best for last), all the teachers will be POTG, rather than carefully cultivated hysterical snowflakes. The product would simply have to improve. You’re welcome.
Ehhh…they knew he was a violent deranged punk. “Let” him store an AR and knives. No sympathy(or empathy) from me. Don’t bother hurling insults at me. I don’t care…they got off ez.
You have a small penis.
You seem to be awfully angry that you have a small schlong, ‘boy’… 🙂
This kid was evil and would have killed sooner or later. The school system and the local police are more to blame than these people taking in a troubled kid.
“They didn’t want to accept accountability, and we forced it on them. For us, that’s why we’re here. We want accountability,” Pollack told the newspaper.”
A statement perhaps better saved for Robert Runcie, Sheriff Israel, and probably a dozen other assorted administrative types who dropped the ball for years with Cruz.
So I’m to understand the neighbor threw him out, with his guns, and so she’s safe and it’s not her fault. And the actual relative who was so sure Cruz was a baddie didn’t do anything useful either, only advising to throw him out. But the couple who tried to help him, it’s all their fault. 🙄 Everyone that “threw him out” merely passed the buck, from family to government that should have committed him.
Should they have pulled the bolt and carrier from that rifle? Yes. Should they have made absolutely sure he could not access the safe? Yes. Last I knew all locks come with 2+ keys.
The only reason this couple is being attacked is because gunz!
What if that relative instead took the time to let this kid know that he mattered? What if she made sure this kid knew people cared about him and loved him? How is she not responsible? These people weren’t even related to him. It isn’t their fault that his own extended family abandoned him. I agree that they didn’t get how disturbed he was, but that’s pretty difficult for normal people to comprehend. Don’t dismiss warning signs.
“They didn’t want to accept accountability, and we forced it on them.” Yep, that’s how the Left does it. You WILL comply. Otherwise you are handed a shovel and forced at gun point to dig a pit and stand in it.
And what was the positive result of “forcing” someone to accept responsibility? Does it mean anything? Can these people get stupider?
How exactly were they supposed to take legally owned property away from an adult?
The pos had shot chickens, threatened pets and brandished weapons with the police coming over 16 times previous when he was in high school. THE SHERIFF SHOULD HAVE CHARGED HIM and taken his weapns but they and the school board made millions over some douche obama program to coddle future blmantifacrats instead of arresting them.
Sheriff Scott Israel should have eaten his gun instead he may get his job back bc the voters are morons.
Holding the foster parents liable for the actions of a troubled teen they were trying to help is callous and cruel. The school failed him, the local Sheriff’s office failed him, the freaking F-B-I failed him. There were so many places in this kid’s life where he could have been referred to and possibly interred at a mental health facility and barred from ownership and access to firearms. But no, let’s blame the only adults who even attempted to care for this kid. Foster kids are ALWAYS screwed up, and if every foster kid who exhibited “warning signs” was in a mental health clinic there wouldn’t be a child left in the foster system – they’d all be at the funny farm.
So long as we’re blaming people who didn’t actually do the shooting, let’s blame his birth parents. If he’d had a happy and normal home life as part of a nuclear family his life would have been very different. Let’s blame the teachers and personnel at the school, since he was their responsibility too, and goodness how they failed him in every way (the shooter had attempted suicide; how the H-LL was he allowed to buy a gun?) Let’s blame the media; their guaranteed wall-to-wall coverage of school shootings glorifying the violence and giving fifteen minutes of fame to complete psychopaths is part of what is driving this trend.
For good measure let’s blame the kids at school. If he’d been part of a community and not just another participant in the “Lord of the Flies” environment that makes high school such a precious experience things would have been different. He wouldn’t have felt the need to take vengeance over perceived wrongs if our school systems didn’t combine all the warmest elements of a federal work camp with those of a third-world poultry farm. Lastly, let’s blame the school resource officer who heard gunshots and decided that it might be bad for his health if he did his duty.
But you know what? It’s not a coincidence that he became a mass shooter. Anyone wondering why mass shootings hold appeal doesn’t understand. If life is suffering (and it is, anyone telling you different is selling something) and existence has no purpose, why SHOULDN’T an angry social outcast want to share his misery? Why wouldn’t someone alienated from society want to become a destroyer? Our culture does not value life. Our country does not value family, community, responsibility, or doing the right thing. Then we act surprised when we turn out psychos that compete for a high score.
I feel for these foster parents. They didn’t deserve any of this.. and I can’t believe they were bullied (socially and legally) into “taking responsibility” and being the scapegoats for the chain of events that led to this shooting. Everyone else has absolved themselves quite neatly. Absolutely disgusting.
So exactly what legal duty does a person have, to take away the property of another, merely because you allow that person to sleep at your house, even if someone says that person is dangerous?
It sounds to me like the lawsuit is premised on the fact that the couple were not thieves, and did not commit a criminal act of stealing the kids guns, that he already had.
I might maybe see it if they provided the guns to the kid, but no, he already had them.
The judge assigned to this case is an obvious idiot or political hack, as the case should have been dismissed on the Florida equivilent of a 12(b)(60 motion, assuming all facts as true, so the F what, no legal duty. Case dismissed.
This is a textbook case of misery loves company.
It’s NOT your fault…
I raised two kids that were found abandoned in a crack house. One turned out well, the other is still shaky. I would not want to be held responsible for what these kids did as adults. It is not the same story but it is the same principle. People take someone in to attempt to help them and then get blamed for the product. They were sued by sanctimonious idiots. If the courts and other professionals had done their jobs this should not have happened.
We live in a litigious society. It’s how we make lawyers rich. I don’t know any of the details in this case (and could not care less), but if past is prologue, the litigating families were looking for big bucks to salve their pain by forcing somebody (anybody) to make them RICH. As it happens, the litigants in this case got only a token in the form of an apology and a measly $1.00. To cover their embarrassment, they now claim to have held the foster parents “responsible.” To me, that $1.00 settlement of lawsuits constitutes a total repudiation (by some agency with uncharacteristic good sense) of outrageous, obscene lawsuits that seem to be the rule rather than the exception in our society. HURRAH!!!
They should have been forced to pay this couple’s legal bills. As it is, the plaintiff lawyers can share the $1, but the defense must be paid.
They took in the bad seed and expected it to grow into something good. It’s nonsense.
Yes, the whole idea of suing them because they were naive is also nonsense, but the parents of the victims want their pound of flesh and the Sneads were an easy target. Taking on the sheriff and government that the parents of the victims elected would be a much tougher out. Also, it would force too much self-reflection, and we can’t have that.
Welcome, Broward County citizens, to the world you created. Enjoy it.
They had the desire to help but not the ability.
Just like most mental health “professionals”.
Let me understand this. Private citizens who offerred a home to this homicidal maniac are being pilloried for not recognizing that he was an extreme risk, but all of the school officials, law Enforcement, Judges and legislators who created the distinctions criminal Justice system get a free pass? Even the school resource officer who cowered in the parking lot while he waited for the shooting to stop isn’t suffering any consequences.
“Blaine, reached by phone on Tuesday, told the newspaper: ‘I blame them for not listening to me; that’s what I blame them for. Why the hell didn’t you listen to Rocxanne and me, to get the guns away from him?'”
So, the previous guardian and a family member both had the opportunity to do what they’re blaming this couple for not doing? Do I read that right?
Asshats.
“Oh shut up silly woman,” Said the reptile with a grin. You knew d**n well I was a snake before you took me in.
On a side note, smiling in court when found guilty of mass murder should automatically merit the death penalty.
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