An Oregon student was held at knifepoint by his brother. He fled and the police shot him.

An Oregon college athlete who was shot multiple times by police while escaping a dangerous encounter with his brother is alleging excessive force and negligence in a federal civil rights case filed Wednesday.

Maverick Lyon, a college lacrosse player, was at home in Albany on Jan. 6 when his brother, who had relapsed into drug use, held him at knifepoint, Stritmatter Law attorneys said in the lawsuit. Their father called Albany police after seeing the altercation on security video at the family home.

Lyon grabbed another knife in self-defense during the encounter and managed to escape out the back door, according to the lawsuit.

According to the complaint, after Lyon dropped the knife, police shot him at least five times. His injuries required four weeks of hospitalization and serious operations. The lawsuit says Lyon was shot while following police orders.

Benton County said in response to an NBC News request that it would not comment on pending litigation. The city of Albany, also named as a defendant, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lyon’s lawyers said in a statement that after the shooting, surgeons “removed half of his right lung, his spleen, his appendix, and performed an extensive operation to reconstruct his digestive system.”

His parents, David and Laura Lyon, said in a statement: “I always believed that when you called 911, help was coming. I never imagined that making that call would leave me wondering if my son would survive.”

“Our family experienced something no family should ever have to experience. I called the police that day because I wanted to protect Maverick, and instead the same people I called for help almost killed him,” they said.

According to the lawsuit, the family’s ordeal began after Jan. 5, when David and Laura Lyon told a Benton County probation officer that their oldest son, Dakota, was “acting dangerously toward his family members” and had relapsed into drug use. They asked the county to take Dakota Lyon into custody, but he refused to do so, according to the lawsuit.

“The next day, David called 911 after Dakota’s drug-induced behavior escalated to taking their youngest son, Maverick Lyon, hostage at knifepoint inside the home,” the lawsuit states.

Albany police surrounded Lyon’s home, where officers were able to identify Maverick and Dakota through a window, according to the lawsuit. Maverick was saying “help me” to the officers through the window, he said. He also alleges that police knew Dakota Lyon and knew Maverick was the victim in the incident.

Police told Maverick to go outside and drop a knife he had grabbed in self-defense, but “when Maverick followed instructions, the Albany police officers shot Maverick at least five times in the chest, back and face after he dropped the knife, got out and posed no threat,” the lawsuit states.

It says that instead of providing medical assistance to Maverick, police “yelled at Maverick to turn around and submit to handcuffs while Maverick was on the ground bleeding.”

The Albany Police Department said in a statement at the time that its officers were involved in a shooting after responding to a domestic dispute and encountering a person with a knife.

Two police officers fired their weapons, hitting the person holding the knife, he said, adding that the officers “immediately provided medical aid until help arrived.”

Dakota Lyon was later sentenced to more than six years in prison for the incident with his brother. According to Eugene’s KVAL-TV, he admitted responsibility in the case and his lawyer said Lyon wished he could have taken the bullets instead of his brother.

The lawsuit alleges excessive force, battery, negligence and violation of Maverick Lyon’s Fourth Amendment rights. He is seeking a jury trial and damages.

Benton County Prosecutor Ryan S. Joslin previously ruled the shooting was justified.

Joslin said that after an investigation, he determined that the officers’ decision to “fire their duty weapons in this case was based on an objectively reasonable belief that doing so was necessary to protect their own lives or the lives of their fellow officers.”

The decision “must be made in light of what the officers knew and perceived before and at the precise time their decision was made,” he said. “In this case, the agents had, in real time, only fractions of a second to decide how to act.”

The prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

David and Laura Lyon said they supported their son’s lawsuit.

“We can’t change what happened that day, but we want answers, accountability and changes that help prevent another family from feeling the same pain as ours,” they said in their statement. “Most importantly, we want Maverick to have every opportunity to heal, move forward and live the life he deserves.”