Charleston church shooting victims strike $88 million settlement with Justice Dept.

October 29, 2021 12:00 am • Last Updated: October 29, 2021 10:06 pm

In this April 10, 2017, file photo, Dylann Roof enters the courtroom at the Charleston County Judicial Center to enter his guilty plea on murder charges in Charleston, S.C. Families of nine victims killed in a racist attack at a Black South Carolina church have reached a settlement with the Justice Department over a faulty background check that allowed Roof to purchase the gun he used in the 2015 massacre. (Grace Beahm/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool, File)

The Justice Department agreed Thursday to pay $88 million to victims of a racially motivated shooting at a historic black church in South Carolina - a substantial but also symbolic figure meant to compensate for a failure in the background-check system that allowed the killer to buy a weapon.

A lawyer for the victims, Bakari Sellers, said the figure was particularly meaningful because the number 88 is significant among white supremacists like gunman Dylan Roof, who was convicted on federal hate crimes charges and sentenced to death.

The 2015 shooting killed nine people attending Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. Roof told investigators afterward that he wanted to start a race war.

FBI officials have admitted that failures in the background check system allowed Roof to buy the gun used in the shooting despite a prior arrest.

A district court judge initially ruled that the victim families did not have legal grounds to sue the government, but that finding was overturned by a federal appeals court.

Under the settlement terms agreed to Thursday, the payments will be split among relatives of the dead and those wounded in the shooting.

The FBI did not admit fault as part of the settlement, but said in a statement: "We in the FBI, like everyone in the country, were horrified by the senseless act of violence and today we continue to grieve with the families whose pain remains fresh from this unspeakable tragedy that took place more than six years ago."

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that since the day of the church 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."

In this June 19, 2015, file photo, police tape surrounds the parking lot behind the AME Emanuel Church as FBI forensic experts work the crime scene in Charleston, S.C. Families of nine victims killed in a racist attack at the church have reached a settlement with the Justice Department over a faulty background check that allowed Dylann Roof to purchase the gun he used in the 2015 massacre. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File)

South Carolina state Sen. Ronnie Sabb, speaks with reporters outside the Justice Department about the 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church shootings in South Carolina, as Malana Pinckney, center, and her sister Eliana, look on, in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. Families of nine victims killed in a South Carolina church have reached a settlement with the Justice Department over a faulty background check that allowed Dylann Roof to purchase the gun he used in the 2015 massacre. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.

STORIES THAT MAY INTEREST YOU