Feds Reach Payout Deal in Deadliest Texas Shooting

More than five years after a man who shouldn't have been able to buy a gun massacred 26 people, including an unborn child, at a church in Texas, the Justice Department says it has reached a deal with survivors and the families of the victims. "The agreement in principle would settle all claims for a total of $144.5 million," the department said in a press release. In 2012, the shooter, Devin Kelley, pleaded guilty at a court-martial to assaulting his wife and stepson and received a bad-conduct discharge from the Air Force, but the military didn't tell civilian authorities about the conviction for domestic assault, CNN reports. If Kelley had been in the National Crime Information Center database, he would not have been able to buy the guns he used in the attack from a licensed dealer, the Justice Department acknowledged.

Kelley killed himself after the November 2017 mass shooting at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church, the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history. In 2021, Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that the federal government was 60% responsible for the shooting, noting that the Air Force had not shared information on Kelley's mental health issues and violent tendencies, which included researching and threatening a mass shooting. Early last year, he ruled that the government should pay $230 million to survivors and relatives. But the government appealed the ruling, leaving some survivors struggling to pay medical bills, the Washington Post reports.

Earlier this year, victims said they were confused and upset by the government's decision to fight the case, NBC reports. They said that some of the arguments used by government lawyers—including that Kelley would have been able to obtain guns by some means even if he was flagged by the background check system—undercut the Biden administration's gun control efforts. Some parts of the settlement still need court approval. "No words or amount of money can diminish the immense tragedy of the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement. "Today’s announcement brings the litigation to a close, ending a painful chapter for the victims of this unthinkable crime." (More mass shootings stories.)