Story at a glance
- The Justice Department announced on Thursday it reached a settlement with the families of those killed and survivors of the 2015 Charleston church shooting.
- The settlement is for $88 million, including $63 million for the families and $25 million for survivors of the shooting.
- The settlement comes more than five years after the June 17, 2015 shooting by a white nationalist at the Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston that killed nine people.
The Justice Department announced on Thursday it reached a settlement with the families of those killed and survivors of the 2015 Charleston, S.C., church shooting.
The settlement is for $88 million, including $63 million for the families of those killed and $25 million for survivors of the shooting, an attorney involved in the settlement told The Associated Press.
The settlement comes more than five years after the June 17, 2015 shooting by a white nationalist at the historic Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston that killed nine: Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson. All of the victims were Black.
Dylann Roof was found guilty of the shooting and sentenced to death for the federal hate crime in January 2017.
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The lawsuits had alleged that the FBI was negligent in conducting background checks in relation to the gun used in the shooting. Gun buyers are required to undergo a federal background check. However, in a loophole, gun dealers can sell the firearms to the buyer if the FBI background check isn’t completed in three days.
Roof had been facing a felony drug charge at the time he purchased the gun. Those facing felony charges are prohibited from purchasing a gun. Had the background check not been delayed past three days, Roof would have been denied the gun.
“The department hopes that these settlements, combined with its prosecution of the shooter will bring some modicum of justice to the victims of this heinous act of hate,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in the Justice Department’s news release,
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