While much of the focus after the Parkland shooting has been on the murderer Nikolas Cruz – motives, history, what could have been done to prevent this tragedy, politics, legal proceedings, etc. – I’d like to focus on something else today: the Snead family.

The Snead family was nice enough to allow Nikolas Cruz to live with them for a while after his mother died in November. I guess they thought they were doing the right thing, the kind thing, by allowing a kid they’d met only a couple of times, who had just lost his mother, who was obviously depressed and alone, and who had brought his own guns to the house stay with them.

“We had this monster living under our roof and we didn’t know,” Kimberly Snead told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in an exclusive interview Saturday. “We didn’t see this side of him.”

“Everything everybody seems to know, we didn’t know,” James Snead said. “It’s as simple as that.”

“We didn’t know.”

This is the clarion call of someone who is trying like hell to avoid responsibility. This is an obvious case of “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” These are people who should have known, but who obviously don’t want to be held accountable for allowing a monster loose on the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Let’s start with the fact that James Snead was an Army intelligence analyst – someone who is trained to look for indications and warnings of danger. The kid had lost his mother. The kid was obviously depressed. But the kid was “polite,” so it was OK to allow him to bring his own guns into the home?

Kimberly and James Snead said they set strict house rules for Cruz, 19, when they agreed to bring their son’s friend into their home – including a locked cabinet for the teen’s guns. They didn’t know he had a key to it, they said in an exclusive interview with the Sun-Sentinel.

Are you kidding me? How do you not know?

The first thing you do when you allow a near-stranger into your home is to make sure he has no access to your firearms. None. Zip. Zero. If there’s even a chance that he may have a key to the lock on that gun cabinet, your stupid ass had BETTER be out getting a new lock or a new cabinet and maintaining positive control of the keys!

Snead said he thought he was the only one with a key to Cruz’s gun cabinet, but he  now knows the teen must have kept a key for himself. Really? They apparently bought the cabinet especially for him, but didn’t think to ensure they knew where all the keys were? They didn’t check to see how many keys they had in their possession? Wouldn’t that be the first thing you check to ensure that the possible mental case you’re housing doesn’t have access to firearms?

But they had strict rules, so it should have been OK, right? Because criminals and sociopaths are so good at following rules! What the hell is wrong with these people?

This Army intelligence analyst also didn’t consider that a person who has just lost his mother may be too depressed to have firearms accessible to them in the first place – for his safety, as well as the safety of those around them?

This Army intelligence analyst didn’t see it fit to find out more about this kid, who had been booted from school for disciplinary problems that started long before high school, and he didn’t think that having a documented disciplinary case bringing his own guns into his house was a problem?

The real problems started at least as early as middle school and quickly intensified. There were the vocal outbursts, disturbing drawings of stick figures with guns, constant disciplinary issues. There were threatening statements written on his homework, including a reference to killing President Obama, saying he should be ‘‘burned alive and eaten.’’

Some teachers banned Nikolas Cruz from their classrooms at Westglades Middle School because of his erratic behavior. One teacher said he was barred from bringing a backpack to the school and security had to search him to ensure he didn’t have weapons. Teachers were very concerned about him and were working to get him help.

Those are some powers of observation there, Mr. Snead! The kid had been a problem for years, but apparently you didn’t bother to talk to your son, who was ostensibly his friend, to find out more about the person whom you are allowing to live under your roof!

Nice job, intelligence analyst!

He showed “no warning signs” of violence, and he was super polite, claims the couple, in a desperate attempt to avoid taking responsibility for either being too careless or too apathetic.

None at all, except for that little incident in which he was suspended from school this past year for assault, prompting the school to slap him on the wrist and ask for a “threat assessment,” but apparently the former Army intelligence analyst didn’t even bother to talk to the school to find out why this kid, whom he was allowing to live with his family, was booted out. Apparently the fact that he was “polite” in the past was enough.

Worse yet, the Sneads said in an interview with Good Morning America this morning that even though they were aware of Cruz’s Instagram account where he supposedly posted photos of guns and killing animals, they apparently never bothered to actually check the account.

“As far as the animal killings, he didn’t do anything in our house,” James Snead said. “We have animals. He loved our animals. Our animals loved him.”

Now, if you’re a parent – let’s put aside the whole “intelligence analyst” thing for a moment – who is “aware” that the individual you’re about to allow into your home has a social media account that has disturbing posts about guns and animal killings, would you not want to check it out? Would you not want to know? Would you not insist on finding out what the hell was going on? Would you not want to check out his social media to ensure you’re not letting a psychopath into your lives.

But no, it was apparently OK, because he never hurt any animals in their house.

Look, I don’t expect people to be psychic, but I do expect them to at least be observant enough and proactive enough to take basic steps to protect themselves and others. I expect them to act on obvious red flags. I expect them to take a little responsibility for their failure to take what should have been fundamental precautions before allowing someone to live in their house – fundamental for thinking human beings, let alone intelligence analysts.

The Sneads were a fail. And now they’re in the national media trying to make excuses for it.

They are a no-go at this station.