Florida mass shooting gunman Nikolas Cruz has reached a “unique” civil settlement with one of his victims and agreed to donate his brain for science, according to court documents and experts.
Cruz used an AR-15 assault rifle to kill 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on February 14, 2018, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.
Lawyers for suspect Anthony Borges, 21, who was shot five times in the attack, have proposed an unusual settlement.
“We thought that if scientists studied his brain, they might be able to figure out what created this monster,” Borges’ lawyer, Alex Arreaza, told Fox News Digital. “Maybe there was some kind of imbalance that caused this, and we can prevent it in the future.”
Scott Herndon, a Berkeley lawyer who has represented victims of mass shootings, described the settlement as like something out of a novel.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this before. It’s very unique,” he told Fox News Digital. “It really speaks to the feelings of those left behind that we should do everything we can to avoid such massacres in the future.”
The new settlement agreement also gives Borges the rights to use Cruise’s name in films, books and other media.
The 25-year-old killer, who is serving a life sentence, cannot profit from his crimes and must get permission from Borges for any interviews.
“We didn’t want him to continue to torture our family,” Arreaza said, citing the O.J. Simpson book “If I Did It” as a cautionary tale.
Herndon noted that it is not uncommon for perpetrators to give up rights to their names as part of a settlement.
The agreement was worked out over a Zoom call between Borges’ father, Rory Borges, Cruz and Arreaza, though Arreaza said Anthony Borges, who suffers from PTSD, was not comfortable participating in the discussions.
“It was pretty obvious what a psychopath he was,” Arreaza noted. “After we were all done, he looked at Rory and asked if he could apologize, and Nikolas apologized to him as if they’d been in a car accident together. It was very cold and weird.”
Borges, who was 15 at the time, was one of 17 victims who barely survived the brutal attack, using his body to block the door to his classroom, where he and other terrified students were huddled.
The once-promising soccer player suffered serious injuries to his leg and torso and underwent more than 10 surgeries.
The settlement also included allocating $430,000 that Cruz was due to receive from a family member’s life insurance policy to Anthony Borges.
In an earlier settlement, the Broward County Public Schools paid $26 million to victims of the shooting, $1.25 million of which went to Borges, along with an undisclosed settlement from the FBI for failing to stop Cruz’s assault.
He and other victims are suing School Resource Officer Scott Peterson and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
The shooting still haunts the young man, but he’s happy the massacre site will be demolished. “Every time I drive by it, it brings back memories,” Arreaza said.
Ashley Papa contributed to this report.
