On Thursday, the Justice Department agreed to settle a series of lawsuits filed by those who survived and the families of those who did not in the deadly 2015 church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.
When 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof entered Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, church members were taking place in a bible study as he opened fire from a handgun, killing nine. Since the shooting, he has said that he did so, hoping to ignite a race war.
After the shooting, the FBI revealed that its system of conducting background checks had failed to catch a fact that should have blocked Roof from buying his weapon. This led to the families suing.
The families of those killed will now receive $63 million from the settlement, and the survivors will get $25 million, according to lawyers involved in the agreement, NBC News reported.
Attorney General Merrick Garland shared the position of the Justice Department, NBC News reported.
"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," Garland said. "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."
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Roof had a criminal history that was not processed correctly in the FBI's database; therefore, it did not show up on the background check while he was purchasing the weapon.
If the FBI doesn't block the sale of a gun after three days, federal law allows it to be sold.
James Comey, the FBI Director at the time, shared that after discovering the mistake, they wished they "could turn back time."
Changes have been made to how the FBI checks for criminal histories in conducting background checks after the error was discovered.
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"We are all sick this happened," Comey said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said in the ruling that is allowing the lawsuit to go forward that, "There is no dispute that the information in this report would have been sufficient to establish that Roof was an unlawful user of a controlled substance who could not lawfully possess a firearm."
Roof has been convicted and sentenced to death for the murders in federal court. In state court, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
