Topline
The families of the victims who were murdered by white supremacist Dylann Roof in a racist mass shooting in 2015 at a historically Black South Carolina church settled Thursday with the Justice Department over a flawed background check that allowed Roof to purchase the gun, according to several reports.
In this June 18, 2015, file photo, a group of women pray together at a makeshift memorial on the ... [+]
Key Facts
The Justice Department agreed to an $88 million deal, with $63 million going to the families of the nine victims who were killed and $25 million going to survivors, the Associated Press reported.
A previous arrest did not show up on Roof’s records when the FBI was conducting a background check on him, and the shooter was allowed to purchase the gun he used in the killings, according to NBC News.
In a statement, the Justice department said the FBI was “negligent” when they allowed Roof to purchase the weapon, ABC reported.
Big Number
14. That’s how many people will receive money as a result of the settlement, according to ABC. Survivors will get $5 million each, and family members of victims will receive between $6 million and $7.5 million each, according to ABC.
Key Background
Parishioners of the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston were conducting Bible study in 2015 when Roof, then 21, broke in and committed the mass murder. He confessed to the crimes while laughing and said he specifically targeted his victims because they were Black and that he wanted to “agitate race relations,” according to CNN. In 2017, Roof became the first person in the U.S. to receive the death penalty for a federal hate crime, according to the Associated Press. In August, an appeals court upheld Roof’s death sentence, saying “no cold record or careful parsing of statutes and precedents can capture the full horror of what Roof did,” in their ruling.
Further Reading
Appeals Court Upholds Death Penalty For Dylann Roof In Charleston Church Shooting (Forbes)
Obama's Amazing Grace (Forbes)
