Staff reports | The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday announced an $88 million settlement of a lawsuit that claimed the Federal Bureau of Investigation was negligent in failing to stop a South Carolina man from buying the gun he used to kill nine people in 2015 at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
The settlement, which will be split between five survivors and families of the victims, reportedly is one of the largest civil rights settlements in history.
“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,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a Thursday 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.”
The convicted killer, Dylann Roof, was sentenced to the death penalty for the killings, and is currently on federal death row in Indiana.
“The nation grieved following the mass shooting at Mother Emanuel, and no one was more profoundly affected than the families of the victims and the survivors we have reached a settlement with today,” said Associate U.S. Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “The department hopes that these settlements, combined with its prosecution of the shooter will bring some modicum of justice to the victims of this heinous act of hate.”
Fourteen victims — survivors and families of those killed — filed suit a year after the massacre at the Calhoun Street church, alleging delays by the FBI and its National Instant Criminal Background Checks System (NICS) contributed to a series of events that led to the shooting.
Shortly after the shooting, FBI Director James Comey admitted the system failed to find that Roof was prohibited from purchasing firearms when he visited a West Columbia gun store April 11, 2015. He bought the Glock pistol he would use less than two months later in Charleston — an attempt to start a “race war,” he said in personal writings.
The victims killed at Emanuel in 2015 were the Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, the Rev. Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, the Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr., Myra Thompson and S.C. Sen. Clementa C. Pinckney, who also served as pastor at Emanuel AME Church.
Roof researched and decided to visit a Wednesday night Bible study at the predominantly Black church because of the church’s historical significance in the fight for civil rights. After praying with the group, he stood up and started firing before fleeing. He was arrested the next day in North Carolina.
According to the Justice Department, settlements for those killed in the shooting ranged from $6 million to $7.5 million per claimant. For each of the five survivors, the settlements are for $5 million. A federal court must still approve the settlements for those who sued, but officials said they expected the court would agree.
S.C. Rep. J.A. Moore, a Hanahan Democrat who is the half brother of victim Myra Thompson, said the fight on behalf of those killed was not over. Numerous efforts at the state and national levels have failed to fix the legal lapse that allowed Roof to buy the gun, often referred to as the “Charleston loophole.”
“Financial restitution is not justice,” he wrote on social media. “Real justice will occur when the hate that drove Dylann Roof to commit that terrible act – which took away my sister – is driven from our society.”
Charleston attorney Andy Savage has represented many of the families of Emanuel victims since shortly after the murders. In a statement Thursday, he wrote on behalf of his clients:
“The funds made available to these families will help accommodate their material needs, but the depth of their loss of cherished loved ones, and the continued mental anguish caused by their vivid memories of helplessly watching the racist slaughter of family and friends, cannot be assuaged by money alone.
“It is their hope that their experience will help to focus those in leadership positions on the plight of the daily trauma suffered by an untold number of victims of gun violence. To do nothing is to continue to accept racial violence and wanton massacres as an integral part of the American experience.”
The Justice Department said that since the tragedy, the FBI has “worked to strengthen and improve the background check process. The department and FBI are also actively working to combat gun violence, which is a significant aspect of the department’s comprehensive violent crime reduction strategy. After the shooting, the department prosecuted the shooter for federal hate crimes and obtained a conviction.”
Sam Spence, editor of the Charleston City Paper, wrote the original Thursday version of this story. Have a comment? Send to feedback@statehousereport.com
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