A Manitoba teen who blames the antidepressant Prozac for causing him to fatally stab his friend is taking the controversial step of suing three doctors who treated him prior to the killing, claiming they should be the ones on the financial hook should his victim’s kin win a pending lawsuit against him.

In what appears to be a Manitoba first, the now-19-year-old has launched a third-party claim for financial damages against two psychiatrists and a physician whom he says treated him at various points between June-September 2009.

“The killing would not have happened if: Dr. David Miller had not prescribed Prozac; Dr. Robert Steinberg had cancelled the Prozac prescription (and if) Dr. Keith Jenkins had not increased the Prozac prescription,” the killer alleges in recently-filed court documents.

The claim, filed under the Joint Tortfeasors and Contributory Negligence Act, effectively asks the Court of Queen’s Bench to transfer any financial liability for Seth Ottenbreit’s death the killer may be found to have onto the three doctors.

Ottenbreit’s mother, Donna Noble, is in the midst of suing the killer, his parents and a grandparent.

The killer also seeks unspecified “special damages” from the physicians to foot the bill for his legal fees stemming from his high-profile criminal case — one which thrust the issue of Prozac and its effects on youth onto the national stage. He was 16 at the time of the incident.

The man pleaded guilty as a youth to second-degree murder and was sentenced to seven years of custody and conditional supervision in November 2011 for the fatal knifing of Ottenbreit, 15, in West St. Paul on Sept. 20, 2009.

Court heard Ottenbreit was stabbed after he damaged a piece of hardwood floor at the killer’s parents’ home. The two were sitting in the garage talking when the accused reached under a blanket, pulled out a knife, and stabbed Ottenbreit in the chest.

The Crown argued the killing was a deliberate and cold-blooded act.

The killer’s defence lawyer countered by thrusting Prozac and the medical system into the spotlight at sentencing.

A U.S. psychiatrist approached to offer expert evidence for the defence told court giving the then-teen Prozac and ignoring the signs it was only worsening his situation was “a prescription for violence” which drove him into a “state of severe agitation.” Some studies have linked the drug to emotional and behavioural disturbances in children.

Provincial Court Judge Robert Heinrichs ruled the drug “clearly affected (the youth) in an alarming way.” While in custody, he stopped taking Prozac and was deemed not to be a public danger any longer, the judge said.

The killer’s claim against his doctors outlines how he started taking Prozac by prescription on June 24, 2009, and details warning signs the medical system allegedly missed or ignored prior to the killing.

Among these were acts of attempted suicide and self-mutilation. Throughout the summer of 2009 his “hostility, anger, aggression, irritability, recklessness and impulsive behaviour worsened,” the lawsuit states.

All three doctors named in the lawsuit are accused of negligence. They have not filed statements of defence and the allegations against them have not been proven or tested in court.

The killer’s civil lawyer, Gene Zazelenchuk, could not be reached Friday for comment.

The man is no longer in jail and is currently a student, according to court documents.

He continues to suffer after-effects of the drug to this day, he claims.