Insight to a Killer

The following paragraphs gave me more insight into Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland, Florida killer, than all the news reports combined.

I Tried to Befriend Nikolas Cruz. He Still Killed My Friends.

By ISABELLE ROBINSON
MARCH 27, 2018

PARKLAND, Fla. — My first interaction with Nikolas Cruz happened when I was in seventh grade. I was eating lunch with my friends, most likely discussing One Direction or Ed Sheeran, when I felt a sudden pain in my lower back. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of my 90-pound body; tears stung my eyes. I turned around and saw him, smirking. I had never seen this boy before, but I would never forget his face. His eyes were lit up with a sick, twisted joy as he watched me cry.

The apple that he had thrown at my back rolled slowly along the tiled floor. A cafeteria aide rushed over to ask me if I was O.K. I don’t remember if Mr. Cruz was confronted over his actions, but in my 12-year-old naïveté, I trusted that the adults around me would take care of the situation.

Five years later, hiding in a dark closet inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I would discover just how wrong I was

Isabelle Robinson's account of Cruz throwing an apple at her captures the sadistic mind of the future killer. We have all faced an aggressive act from a hostile person. Maybe that makes Ms. Robinson's commentary so poignant. Most of us have never faced the barrel of an AR-15, or any firearm for that matter. 

Cruz's depraved act, attacking an innocent student with a hard-thrown apple, seems easier to grasp at that level. That he would return years later an open fire with an assault rifle seems only like the same act-- on steroids. Or on semiautomatic weapons...

Cruz's recent Adoptive Parents:

We haven't heard much about the Snead family, James and Kimberly Snead, the adoptive parents to take Nikolas Cruz into their house in recent months. The Snead claimed to know nothing about the serious suspicions surrounding Cruz.

The Sneads encountered Nikolas Cruz very late in the process. They had a son of their own, a Douglas HS student who was in the building when Cruz gunned down his former classmates and teachers.

The Snead family offered a few comments, reported by CNN, and they proved upsetting. :

The Sneads allowed Cruz to bring his firearms into the home, but they made him buy a locking gun safe, they told the Sun Sentinel. James Snead thought he had the only key to the safe, but he now believes Cruz kept one for himself, he told the paper.

They said they told Cruz he needed to ask permission to take out the guns.

"This family did what they thought was right, which was take in a troubled kid and try to help him, and that doesn't mean he can't bring his stuff into their house," Lewis, their attorney, told CNN.

Unfortunately "his stuff" included an AR-15.

Isabelle experienced the unvarnished Nikolas Cruz five years before the tragedy. Her article makes a strong case for Cruz's classmates not having played a role in his unraveling. Cruz had unraveled years earlier, and most likely his downfall began in the cradle. Cruz sounds like a dispassionate robotic killer. He had a penchant for hurting people-- whether with an apple or bullets. 

The thing that makes me wonder— how a recent addition to your home, in this case an adoptive young man with a troubled history—arrives on the scene with his personal AR-15 and red flags don’t go up.

The Sneads didn’t take notice… Neither did the rest of the country until the Douglas High School students took action.