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DOJ reaches $88M settlement with South Carolina church shooting victims


The Justice Department announced Thursday it reached an $88 million settlement over 2015’s mass shooting at a church in South Carolina. This includes $63 million for the families of the nine people killed and $25 million for five survivors who were inside the church at the time of the shooting.

The video above shows survivors and family members reacting to the settlement. The families had sued over a faulty background check that allowed Dylan Roof to buy the gun he used in the shooting.

“Plaintiffs agreed to settle claims alleging that the FBI was negligent when it failed to prohibit the sale of a gun by a licensed firearms dealer to the shooter, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, who wanted to start a ‘race war’ and specifically targeted the 200-year-old historically African-American congregation,” the Justice Department wrote in its announcement.

Months before the shooting, Roof was arrested on a drug possession charge. According to court documents, a series of clerical errors and missteps ensued.

The errors included wrongly listing the sheriff’s office as the arresting agency in the drug case. An examiner with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System found some information on the arrest when Roof tried to buy the gun. However, the examiner needed more information to deny the sale, so she sent a fax to a sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office said it didn’t have the report and directed the examiner back to the police department that arrested Roof.

However, that department was not found in a federal listing of law enforcement agencies. After getting in touch with the wrong police department, the examiner did nothing more.

Roof was sentenced to death by a federal jury in 2017.

“You know, there is an unfortunate reality in our country and that is that African-Americans have not always seen equal justice in our courts,” attorney Mullins McLeod said. “This settlement, however, is a beacon for all of us and a reminder that justice does exist.”

According to another attorney for the families, the final figure of the church shooting settlement was purposeful. “88” is a number typically associated with white supremacy, and it was the number of bullets Roof said he had taken with him to the attack.

“We get to give a big ‘F-U’ to the white supremacists and racists in this country by saying that we’re taking this tragedy that they tried to tear our country apart with and build black communities in generational wealth,” Bakari Sellers said Thursday.

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Barkari Sellers, Attorney for Victims’ Families: “We cannot bring back those nine victims. We cannot erase the scars that those survivors have. But what we do here today is lawyers and these families, is we say, we stand on justice.”

Mullins McLeod, Attorney Representing Victims’ Families: “You know, there is an unfortunate reality in our country and that is that African-Americans have not always seen equal justice in our courts. This settlement, however, is a beacon for all of us and a reminder that justice does exist.”

Jennifer Pinckney, Widow of Rev. Clementa Pinckney / Church Shooting Survivor: “If I had the opportunity to bring Clementa back, I’d switch. You can all take the settlement, bring my husband back to me, bring their father back to them.”

“I still relive and I still think about what happened being there. I’ll remember it so the day I die. And so I live with it every day and my girls know, you know, the anxiety is there. The crying is still there. So you take one day at a time.”

Eliana Pinckney, Daughter of Rev. Clementa Pinckney: “It very clearly is not an easy journey. It’s already so hard to lose someone you love, but it’s even harder to grow up without a father knowing that he lost his life in a place that he devoted his entire life to.”

Barkari Sellers, Attorney for Victims’ Families: “88 is a is a weird number because it’s enveloped in so much hate. Dylann Roof had 88 on his shoes. Senator Malloy called me the day after we reached an agreement. Eighty eight has is steeped in so much white supremacy and hate. And so today we get to give a big, close your ears Jennifer, a big, big “F-U” to the white supremacist and racist in this country? By saying that we’re taking this tragedy that they tried to tear our country apart with and build black communities in generational wealth.”