The Justice Department reached an $88 million settlement with the families of nine Black parishioners killed by a white supremacist in a South Carolina church in 2015, and with survivors of the shooting, the authorities and lawyers said on Thursday.
The settlement includes millions for families of the victims and survivors of the shooting, in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historically Black church in Charleston. It resolves lawsuits that accused the government of negligence in its background check system that allowed the gunman to purchase a firearm.
The survivors and the victims’ families had sued the government for wrongful death and physical injuries, the department said. The settlement amounts range from $6 million to $7.5 million for those killed, and $5 million for survivors, the department said in a statement.
“The mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church was a horrific hate crime that caused immeasurable suffering for the families of the victims and the survivors,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in the statement. “Since the day of the shooting, the Justice Department has sought to bring justice to the community, first by a successful hate crime prosecution and today by settling civil claims.”
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/us/dylann-roof-settlement-families.html
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