The shooter killed 26 people and injured 22 more – More than 75 plaintiffs had sued the federal government, accusing it of failing to prevent the shooter from gaining access to firearms.
The US Department of Justice he agreed to pay today compensation amounting to 144.5 million dollars in victims once slaughter committed in 2017 by an ex-military man inside a church in Texas.
Devin Kelly killed 26 people and injured 22 others. More than 75 plaintiffs had sued the federal government, accusing it of failing to prevent the shooter from gaining access to firearms.
Kelly, a 26-year-old former corporal, was court-martialed in 2012 for domestic violence against his wife and her child. He had also been committed to a psychiatric hospital during his time in the Air Force because he threatened to kill his superiors.
Federal law prohibits those convicted of domestic violence from purchasing firearms. Just as the US Air Force did not turn over his file to the federal police, which is responsible for checking the criminal records of gun buyers. Kelly thus managed to build an arsenal. On Sunday, November 5, 2017, armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, he entered a Baptist church in the town of Sutherland Springs, Texas and opened fire. The church was filled with worshippers, including many children, as the service was in progress.
A short time later, after a police chase, Devin Kelly shot himself in the head and died.
A federal court ruled in 2021 that the government could be held partially responsible for the massacre and ordered it to pay $230 million in damages to the plaintiffs. The Ministry of Justice appealed.
Today’s settlement, which must be approved by a court, ends the legal battle.
“No words and no amount of money will ever be able to mitigate the Sutherland Springs tragedy,” said Vanita Gupta, a senior Justice Department official. But this “closes a difficult chapter for the victims of this unimaginable crime”, he added.
In 2022, the government agreed to pay $127.5 million to victims of the Parkland High School massacre in Florida. The 40 plaintiffs accused the FBI of ignoring two informants who had warned authorities about the perpetrator’s dangerousness. In 2021, the relatives of nine African-Americans, who were killed in a church in Charleston in 2015 by a white supremacist, were awarded $88 million in compensation.
Source :Skai
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