FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A lawsuit filed against the Department of Children and Families alleges the department didn't do enough to a protect a now 9-year-old boy who was stabbed by his father in February 2012.
The child, identified in the complaint as S.D., survived a standoff in February 2012 when his father, William De Jesus, killed the owner of a motor home, then stabbed his older son, S.D., and his wife. De Jesus then killed himself, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.
De Jesus' wife was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated manslaughter.
"Anybody that reads the complaint, anybody that reads the facts of this case has to be sickened and has to be angered that we would allow a child in this state to be treated the way this child was treated," said attorney Joel Fass.
"The people who were supposed to protect him from the failure of his parents failed him even more than they did," said attorney David Bazerman.
The lawsuit alleges that DCF knew De Jesus abused his other children out-of-state and has a criminal history of violence.
"If the parental rights of these two people had been terminated as the evidence cried out for, there's no question in my mind that the older boy would be alive and the younger boy wouldn't have had to sit for five hours. He sat for five hours in that motor home looking at his brother would had just been killed," said Fass.
DCF issued a statement, saying: "The department has not been served with the lawsuit. We did receive a courtesy copy of the complaint and are in the process of reviewing it."