Justice Department reaches settlement with families of 2015 Charleston church massacre
By Pete Williams
The Justice Department agreed Thursday to settle a series of lawsuits filed by survivors and families of the victims of 2015’s deadly church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, according to lawyers involved in the agreement.
Nine people were killed when a 21-year-old white supremacist, Dylann Roof, entered Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church during Bible study and began firing a handgun. He later confessed, saying he acted in hopes of igniting a race war.
The families sued after the FBI revealed that its system for conducting background checks failed to catch a fact that should have blocked the sale of the gun Roof used in the shooting. He bought the Glock 41 two months earlier at a shopping mall in West Columbia.
The settlement provides $63 million for families of those killed in the shooting rampage and $25 million for survivors, the lawyers said.
“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 Garland said Thursday. “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.”
Roof's criminal history showed that he had been arrested on a felony drug charge in Lexington County, South Carolina, where the sheriff's office told the FBI examiner conducting the background check to contact the Columbia Police.
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