The suspected gunman in the Florida school shooting lived with a student at the high school for the last three months.
Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was living in a mobile home with a student for the past three months, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.
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Cruz and his brother, who had been adopted at birth by Lynda and Roger Cruz, had allegedly been living with a family friend in Palm Beach County after their adoptive mother died of pneumonia on Nov. 1. Unhappy with the living situation, the 19-year-old asked if he could move in with his friend’s family.
The family allowed Cruz to move in around Thanksgiving, giving him a room and encouraging him to attend adult education class. They say that they were aware that Cruz had an AR-15, but they made him keep it in a locked gun cabinet, Cruz’s attorney, Jim Lewis, said. The family stated that they had never seen Cruz shooting the assault rifle, which authorities confirmed he had legally purchased, but that they did see him shooting a pellet gun in the backyard.
“The family is devastated, they didn’t see this coming. They took him in and it’s a classic case of no good deed goes unpunished,” Lewis said. “He was a little quirky and he was depressed about his mom’s death, but who wouldn’t be?”
Cruz is now charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder after he entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where he had been expelled last year, just before dismissal armed with an AR-15, several magazines of ammunition, a gas mask, and smoke grenades. He is alleged to have pulled the fire alarm before opening fire as students poured into the hallways.
The shooting left 17 students and an adult dead and 15 injured, marking the third deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
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NEW YORK CITY – DECEMBER 19: "Toil and Trouble" – Elsbeth is thrown into the world of television after the showrunner of a long-running police procedural is brutally murdered in his office, and although it appears to be the act of a disgruntled fan, she begins to suspect the show's longtime star Regina Coburn (Laurie Metcalf) who yearns for artistic fulfillment. Meanwhile, Judge Crawford (Michael Emerson) continues to be a thorn in Elsbeth's side, on the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, Dec. 19 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs). Pictured (L-R): Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni and Carra Patterson as Kaya Blanke. (Photo by Michael Parmelee/CBS via Getty Images)
