Parkland student shot 5 times files suit against alleged gunman, family
A Parkland high school student who was shot five times while protecting his classmates by alleged gunman Nikolas Cruz has filed a lawsuit against the 19-year-old suspect, the family that took him in, the estate of his deceased mother and several mental heath facilities.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Anthony Borges, 15, is credited with saving as many as 20 of his classmates on Feb. 14, when Cruz allegedly opened fire on the Parkland campus, killing 17. During the shooting, Borges barricaded a classroom door and used his body as a shield as the bullets flew, protecting a class full of students from harm.
On Tuesday, Royer Borges and Emely Delfin, Borges' parents, filed a suit in a Broward County court on Tuesday on their son's behalf, seeking a jury trial for "damages in excess of $15,000.00, exclusive of interest, costs, and attorney's fees," among other damages.
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The suit names Cruz, foster parents James and Kimberly Snead, Henderson Behavioral Health, Inc., Jerome Golden Center for Behavioral Health, Inc., South County Mental Health Center, Inc., and the estate of biological mother Lynda Cruz, as defendants in the case.
"This is the poster child for everything going wrong," Borges' family attorney Alex Arreaza told the "Today" show earlier this month.
Cruz moved in with James and Kimberly Snead three months before the shooting. James Snead asserted that the family knew Cruz had guns and were OK with it. There was a gun safe and James Snead believed he possessed the sole key.
The lawsuit, however, claims that Cruz "had access to one or more of his guns, while residing at the Sneads' residence; and specifically, the AR-15 rifle that he subsequently used in committing the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School."
NBC News was not immediately able to reach the Snead family for comment.
The suit also claims that Henderson Behavioral Health, Inc., was negligent in its duties after it gave Cruz a psychiatric evaluation in 2016 and determined he did not require hospitalization because he "'was not a risk to harm himself or anyone else' because he was on a treatment plan for ADHD, depression, and autism."
Additionally, the suit claims that Jerome Golden Center for Behavioral Health, Inc., and South County Mental Health Center, Inc., "knew or should have known" that Cruz "suffered from mental illness and was a threat to others."
The three mental health facilities named in the suit did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.
The suit goes on to claim the final defendant, the estate of Cruz's mother Lynda Cruz, who died in November 2017, should be held accountable due to her repeated reports of her son's violent behavior. It goes on to say that Lynda Cruz "owed a duty to the public" to obtain a "proper diagnosis and treatment" for her son and to prevent him from obtaining weapons.
After Cruz was evaluated in 2016, Lynda Cruz told investigators that her son suffered from ADHD, depression and autism but insisted he received his necessary medication as prescribed, according to the report.
She told investigators at the time that her son did not own a gun, beyond an air gun that she had taken away when he "didn't follow house rules about only shooting it within the backyard at the targets."
