PARKLAND, Fla. - Some see them as saviors who opened their home to a grieving young man after his mother died. Others say they were naïve or negligent and failed to properly supervise a dangerous 19-year-old and his cache of guns.
James and Kimberly Snead let Nikolas Cruz move into their Parkland home for the 2 1/2 months before the self-confessed shooter murdered 17 people and injured 17 others at Marjory Stone man Douglas High School.
They say their act of kindness had tragic consequences they never imagined.
The Sneed's, who say they felt sorry for their son's 19-year-old friend after he was left orphaned, have already been named as defendants in two civil lawsuits connected to the Feb. 14 attack at the Parkland school.
One is a wrongful death claim filed by the estate of 18-year-old Meadow Pollack. The other is a negligence complaint filed by the parents of Anthony Borges, the 15-year-old who survived five bullet wounds.
The Sneed's anticipate they will be named in more lawsuits in the coming weeks and months. They say they fear the litigation will rapidly drive them into bankruptcy and they don't have the money to even hire an attorney to defend them.
"We're like many other families in America today, we live paycheck to paycheck," James Snead told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in an interview Thursday.
Since the shooting, the family has been commended by some.
People nationwide have sent them cards and letters, praising them for taking Cruz into their home and commiserating about how it all went horribly wrong.
The Sneads said they knew only that Cruz was depressed by his mother's death, that he had been involved in fights at school and that he seemed immature and quirky
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But they've also been scorned as ludicrously naive or willfully blind for letting their son's relatively new friend move into their home with his collection of guns, including the AR-15 he used in the slayings.
The lawsuits filed against the Sneads allege they should have known Cruz was mentally ill and posed a threat to others.
The Pollack and Borges families are seeking damages. Also named as defendants in the Pollack lawsuit, for now, are former Broward Sheriff's deputy Scot Peterson, the estate of Cruz's mother, Lynda, and two mental health agencies that may have treated Cruz.
The Borges suit names the Sneads, the two mental health agencies and the estate of Cruz's mother. The sheriff's office, school district, FBI and others may be sued later.
The Sneads said they rent their home and don't even have renters' insurance.
They said they've been told it would cost them about $20,000 up front - and a lot more down the line - to hire an attorney to defend them against the lawsuits.
Though their critics don't believe them, Snead says he and his family saw no warning signs that Cruz would turn violent. They said he was pleasant and followed their house rules.
They tried to get him re-enrolled at Stoneman Douglas, but officials declined to take him back so they enrolled him at an off-campus learning center, run by the district, at Rock Island Professional Development Center in Oakland Park.
They said he seemed to be doing well there and district officials never gave them any warnings about Cruz's behavior.
Stones and beer bottles have been hurled at their home on a quiet road in Parkland. Some drivers yell obscenities and insults as they drive by.
On occasions when they've been recognized in public, picking up groceries or running errands, some people have muttered "negative things" under their breaths. They've also had to try to defuse encounters with others who want to take them to task and debate the matter with them.
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Snead said he does not recall receiving any voicemails or messages from other relatives or family friends and thinks he would have returned them at the time if he did.
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