Parkland School Shooting Survivor: Anthony Borges

When Anthony Borges and his classmates came face-to-face with a gunman shooting up their Florida school, Anthony Borges put the lives of others before his own, a friend who survived thanks to the teenager and his father told ABC News.

A soccer player at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 15-year-old Anthony placed his body between alleged mass killer Nikolas Cruz and fellow students, Carlos Rodriguez, who said he survived because of Anthony's heroism, told ABC News.

A friend of Anthony said..

"None of us knew what to do. So, he took the initiative to just save his other classmates".

As gunfire erupted Feb. 14, 2018. in the halls of Building 12 at the Parkland, Florida, school, Anthony and his classmates rushed to hide in a classroom as the gunman bore down on them, firing randomly and rapidly at students, Carlos said.

Image: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Anthony was the last of 20 students who fled into a room and was trying to lock the door when he was shot, Carlos said. He held his ground in the doorway, putting his body between the bullets and his classmates, who all survived uninjured, Carlos said.

Image:Cristobal Herrera/EPA/REX/Shutterstock

Anthony was shot in the lungs, abdomen and legs. Arreaza said Borges' "physical wounds were healing, but the (post-traumatic stress disorder) is manifesting itself more all the time."

When CBS4 spoke to Arreaza earlier in the week, he explained, "One of the problems that he still has is one of his feet he doesn't have full function in his toes, so they have some more work to do with the ligaments. He's not able to do what he loved to do, [that] triggers the PTSD and creates those problems," said Arreaza.

Fifty-two families are part of the first settlement which was announced on Monday.

It's not known how much each family will receive, but the families of the 14 students and three staff members killed will get the largest shares. Those will be equal.

Meantime, the Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz plead guilty on Wednesday to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.

Anthony Borges, who had been shot five times, was in the courtroom to hear the pleas and Cruz's apology to the families.

Borges told reporters after the hearing that he accepted Cruz's apology, but said it wasn't up to him to decide the confessed murderer's fate.

"He made a decision to shoot the school," Borges said. "I am not God to make the decision to kill him or not. That's not my decision. My decision is to be a better person and to change the world for every kid. I don't want this to happen to anybody again. It hurts. It hurts. It really hurts. So, I am just going to keep going. That's it."

Source: CBS News

ABC News