(HorizonPost.com) – In a settlement reached last week, the most severely injured survivor of the 2018 Parkland, Florida school shooting now owns the rights to gunman Nikolas Cruz’s name and Cruz will not be allowed to give any interviews without first receiving his permission.
Anthony Borges, 21, was shot by Cruz five times in the legs and back during the shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, in which 17 people lost their lives. The promising soccer player has undergone more than a dozen surgeries since then and continues to live in constant pain.
The Broward County School District paid a $1.25 million settlement to Borges, who also received an undisclosed amount from the FBI for its failure to prevent the shooting.
Borges settled his lawsuit against Cruz just weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin to assess damages against the convicted shooter. That trial has now been canceled.
Under the settlement reached, Cruz must also turn over any life insurance benefits he may receive from a relative, participate in scientific research on mass shootings, and donate his body to science upon his death.
The 25-year-old Cruz, who is serving 17 consecutive life sentences, is also prohibited from benefiting from or cooperating with any authors, film or TV producers, or other media productions without first receiving permission from Borges.
Attorney Alex Arreaza, who represented Borges in the case, said last Thursday that the goal was to shut Cruz down “so we never have to hear about him again.”
Borges was shot in a third-floor hallway during the Valentine’s Day shooting. Security footage showed that Cruz aimed his rifle at Borges after he collapsed to the floor but did not shoot him again as he did the other victims.
Under existing Florida law, inmates are prohibited from keeping the proceeds related to their crimes, including from the sale of writings or art that they might produce while in prison.
During Cruz’s sentencing, the judge ordered that the money placed into his prison commissary account must be seized to pay court costs and investigative costs, as well as restitution to the survivors and the families of his victims.
The families and survivors of the Parkland shooting are also suing former Broward County deputy Scot Peterson, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, and two former Stoneman Douglas security guards, accusing them of failing to protect students and staff.
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