The US Department of Justice agreed Wednesday to pay USD 144.5 million to the victims of a massacre committed in a church in the state of Texas in 2017, to end a prosecution for “negligence”.
More than 75 people affected by the drama, which left 26 dead and 22 wounded, had filed a civil complaint against the federal government, which they accused of failing to prevent the perpetrator of the massacre from buying the gun.
The announced settlement, which still has to be approved by a court, should conclude the judicial process.
“Today’s announcement brings an end to litigation and a painful chapter for the victims,” said Vanita Gupta, a senior Justice Department official.
Devin Kelley, a 26-year-old former soldier involved in the incident, had been convicted in 2012 by a court-martial for violence against his wife and her son.
As a soldier, he was also committed to a psychiatric clinic after threatening to kill his superiors.
U.S. federal law prohibits people convicted of domestic violence from buying firearms, but military officials did not forward his record to federal law enforcement, which must check criminal records prior to gun sales.
Armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle, Devin Kelley burst in during a mass at a church in the small town of Sutherland Springs, Texas (South), on Sunday, November 5, 2017, and then opened fire on the worshippers present, including children.
A federal court ruled in 2021 that the government could be partially liable for that killing and ordered it to pay the plaintiffs $230 million. The Justice Department appealed the ruling.
“No words or amount of money can diminish the immense tragedy of the mass shooting at Sutherland Springs,” Vanita Gupta stressed in her remarks.
In 2022, the government had agreed to pay $127.5 million to the victims of a school shooting in Parkland, Florida (southeast), to put an end to 40 complaints accusing the FBI of not following up on reports from two sources that told it of the dangerousness of the perpetrator of the massacre.
And in 2021 it paid $88 million to the families of nine African Americans killed in 2015 by a white supremacist at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, as well as survivors of the drama, closing similar lawsuits.