Neighbor testifies in Parkland school shooter trial: "He would lose his temper"
FORT LAUDERDALE – A neighbor testified Wednesday at the Parkland shooter's sentencing trial that he tried to warn the shooter's adoptive mother that he had problems. But he says she would not listen.
Paul Gold says he lived next door to the shooter's family when the shooter was 9 or 10 years old.
"The refrigerator was empty, the cupboards were empty," Gold said, believing the family was strapped financially.
Gold also said he believed the shooter or his brother had damaged their home breaking a door, mirror and hitting a wall.
He said the shooter had trouble making friends, was developmentally behind and had a short fuse.
"He would lose his temper, and snap," he said.
Gold had little contact with the shooter after he moved, although he says he drove the shooter to his mother's funeral service at the end of 2017.
He says the shooter was upset that few people came to the service. Several weeks later he would enter his former high school and kill 17 people.
Prosecutors challenged Gold's credibility, playing a jailhouse phone call with the shooter where he's heard trying to convince him to tell his story on the big screen.
"I don't know if I would want that," the shooter replies.
