Nikolas Cruz, the man who took 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, was reportedly reeling from the death of his mother, and sources say that discussion of his inheritance was often a trigger for his violent behavior.
Cruz’s mother passed away on Nov. 1, 2017. According to a report by The New York Times, he and his younger brother went to stay with Rocxanne Deschamps, a family friend. However, after constant fighting and even one reported gun threat, Cruz left the mobile home to go stay with a friend from Stoneman Douglas High, the Snead family.
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The Sneads took Cruz in on the condition that he buy a gun safe for his personal arsenal. They imposed rules on him which they said he followed, and claim that they were completely floored by the violence bubbling under the surface.
However, the newly released transcript of a call to the FBI tip line about Cruz reveals that the Snead family may have been helping Cruz with more than just housing. The anonymous caller said that no family members could get a hold of Cruz or the Sneads, and that Cruz was being extremely protective of his mother’s life insurance money.
Cruz stood to inherit $25,000 at the age of 21, and another $25,000 every year until he turned 30, according to the caller. It reportedly had to do with a wrongful death suit that Cruz’s mother had won on her husband, as well as her own life insurance policy. The caller said that Cruz was defensive of this money, choosing not to share it, even with his younger brother, and that the Sneads wanted to help him with financial planning.
“He also said — this is another flag I saw. He also said when Nikolas gets his money, his $25,000, This man will invest it for him,” the caller said.
“He doesn’t know Nikolas from a hole in the wall. And I don’t know who he’s going to invest it with or what’s going to happen but I do know, and this is a fact, when you ask Nikolas for money, he goes up one rule and down the other. he gets crazy, because he will not give anybody his money. Matter of fact… the bank is all is, and, you know, to hell with everybody else including his brother.”
Earlier in the call, the caller had said that they suspected Cruz of taking money from his mother’s account after her death.
“He went and took money out of his mother’s account. I don’t know how he got the debit card, but he did. And he, uh, took money. This is after she passed away. And he took the money out, the social security money out… and he bought all these rifles and ammunition and he posted pictures of them on Instagram.”
The revelations about Cruz are endless in the wake of the Florida school shooting on Feb. 14. The 19-year-old reportedly suffered from anger management issues, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The caller to the FBI described him as having the mental capacity of a 12 to 14-year-old.
Many other tips to the FBI and local law enforcement are being investigated, in an attempt to determine who is accountable for Cruz’s legal purchase of an AR-15 assault rifle and his nefarious use of it on Valentine’s Day.
