The United States Department of Justice agreed on Thursday, October 28, that the families of the 2015 shooting spree that left nine people from the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church dead on June 17, 2015 will be paid $88 million.
As per the Christian Headlines, those who survived the incident would be given $25 million while $63 million will be given to the families of the deceased, totaling $88 million in settlement.
CBN News elaborated that each claimant family of the deceased would get roughly $6 million to $7.5 million while each survivor would get $5 million. However, the settlement is still pending the approval of the presiding judge.
The $88 million settlement was said to be purposefully asked by the victims for the meaning the figure "88" represented. The legal counsel in behalf of the families who assisted for the settlement, Bakari Sellers, explained that the figure actually equaled the number of bullets used during the massacre, and is a number typically associated with white supremacy.
United States Attorney General Merrick Garland pointed out in a statement the federal court's efforts of bringing justice to the victims of the said "most horrific hate crime" over the years through its prosecution and now through the settlement.
"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. 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," Garland said.
In 2016, Christianity Daily reported that the federal court convicted Dylann Roof, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, for the murder of the nine people in the Mother Emanuel AMA Church of Charleston, South Carolina. Roof, convicted by jury members of a total of 33 charges, was the first person sentenced for a federal hate crime.
The massacre, said to be the worst in 50 years on an African-American congregation, also led to the death of Mother Emanuel AME Church Pastor Rev. Clementa Pinckney.
The incident took place after Roof, a total stranger, was welcomed in to join a Bible study. As per CCTV footage, Roof had been a part of it for roughly 45 minutes before he began shooting at the congregation just in time every one had their eyes closed while praying. Roof made sure to leave survivors such as Polly Sheppard unharmed "to tell the story."
"Have I shot you yet? I'm not going to. I'm going to leave you here to tell the story," Sheppard recounted Roof telling her during trial.
The families of the nine deceased and the five survivors, 14 plaintiffs in all, filed the lawsuit in line with the "faulty background check" that enabled Roof to purchase the gun for the mass murder. Accordingly, Roof was arrested by the Columbia police of South Carolina for possession of illegal drugs but the said crime was recorded erroneously.
The records show that Roof's arresting agency in the drug case was the sheriff's office, such that when verification of records was being done for the purchase of the gun by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the sheriff's office had to redirect the inquiry to the Columbia police.
But since the Columbia police did not appear on the list in Roof's arrest records, the examiner did not go further in checking with the West Columbia Police Department after checking the with the sheriff's office. This allowed Roof to acquire the gun from the West Columbia store.
