Anthony Borges, 15, hailed as hero of Florida school shooting
Boy was shot five times as he shielded fellow students in Parkland classroom

A teenage survivor of the Florida school shooting put himself in the line of fire to save fellow students, according to a classmate.
Anthony Borges, 15, was shot five times during the Valentine’s Day rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Fellow student Carlos Rodriguez told ABC that he and more than a dozen other students owed their lives to Borges’ heroism.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Borges was among about 20 students who sought refuge in a classroom as the gunman stalked the corridors of the school, shooting randomly at fleeing students with an automatic rifle.
As he hurried to lock the door, the gunman opened fire, Rodriguez said. Despite being wounded, the boy held his ground and continued to lock the door.
“None of us knew what to do. So, he took the initiative to just save his other classmates,” Rodriguez said.
Borges was shot four more times, his body shielding other students, who escaped unharmed.
The 15-year-old was later rushed to hospital with bullet wounds to his back and legs. He was the last of the hospitalised survivors to be listed as “critical”, but his condition has now been upgraded to stable, the New York Daily News reports.
A Facebook post by the local sheriff’s department showing Sheriff Scott Israel shaking the injured boy’s hand as he lies in a hospital bed has been shared nearly 10,000 times.
Israel said he was “honoured” to visit Borges, whom he described as having “a long road ahead”.
Ex-student Nikolas Cruz has reportedly confessed to carrying out the attack, which left 17 people dead and more than a dozen wounded.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Book reviews: 'The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip' and 'Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service'
Feature The tech titan behind Nvidia's success and the secret stories of government workers
By The Week US
-
Mario Vargas Llosa: The novelist who lectured Latin America
Feature The Peruvian novelist wove tales of political corruption and moral compromise
By The Week US
-
How to see the Lyrid meteor shower
The explainer A nice time to look to the skies
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
The worship of weapons
feature Sacrificing children so that anyone can own an AR-15
By William Falk
-
Uvalde school fails safety inspection just 7 months after mass shooting
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans
-
10 things you need to know today: May 31, 2022
Daily Briefing Biden calls for "rational" gun control as mass shootings continue, the EU bans most Russian oil imports, and more
By Harold Maass
-
Would more investment in the police have stopped the tragedy in Uvalde?
opinion The sharpest opinions on the debate from around the web
By Grayson Quay
-
10 things you need to know today: May 30, 2022
Daily Briefing Biden meets with families of school-shooting victims, Zelensky visits front lines in Kharkiv, and more
By Harold Maass
-
Should parents be held responsible for school shootings?
feature Parents of perpetrator of latest US school shooting charged with involuntary manslaughter
By The Week Staff
-
‘Don’t be surprised if there’s a backlash against the unvaccinated’
Instant Opinion Your digest of analysis from the British and international press
By The best columns
-
10 things you need to know today: October 21, 2021
Daily Briefing The FDA OKs Moderna, J&J boosters and mix-and-match vaccines, Nikolas Cruz pleads guilty to Parkland school massacre, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US