Sutherland Springs shooting victims offered $144.5M in settlement 5 years after massacre
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TEXAS: A mass shooting at Sutherland Springs, Texas, had 26 dead, and 22 injured during the 2017 attack. At present, after years of a legal battle with the authorities, victims have reached a tentative agreement with the Justice Department to settle the dispute once and for all. According to one of the Attorneys of a victim, the number is somewhere around $144.5 million. The shocking incident occurred on November 5, 2017, at the small, rural First Baptist Church.
“[The Sutherland Springs families] have gone through so much pain and loss in the most horrific way," trial attorney Jamal Alsaffar told ABC News. "But despite that, these families fought for justice, endured and won two trials against the Federal Government, and made this country safer as a result," Alsaffar added that the agreement is not absolute and will require a final signature from Attorney General Merrick Garland. However, if approved, it would end a long-standing complex and uncomfortable process for the DOJ.
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'No words or amount of money can diminish the immense tragedy'
In a July 2021 ruling, a judge held the government largely responsible for the mass shooting, since they failed to inform the FBI about the shooter, Devin Kelley. The judge explained that if he was reported to the body about his previous actions involving a physical assault on his then-wife and her stepson, the mass killer would have been court-martialed. This would also have barred him from buying a weapon under the NICS background check system.
District judge Xavier Rodriguez had said, "[Evidence presented during trial] conclusively established that no other individual -- not even Kelley’s own parents or partners -- knew as much as the United States about the violence that Devin Kelley had threatened to commit and was capable of committing." He ruled the government to pay victims over $230 million in damages. "No words or amount of money can diminish the immense tragedy of the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs. Today’s announcement brings the litigation to a close, ending a painful chapter for the victims of this unthinkable crime," said Vanita Gupta, Associate Attorney General in a statement on Wednesday, April 5.
'NICS plays a critical role'
On the other side, DOJ released a statement, "The NICS plays a critical role in combatting gun violence, and the federal government is always striving to improve the functioning of that system. The Department continues to work actively to combat gun violence as part of its comprehensive violent crime reduction strategy."
