DOJ Agrees to $144 Million Settlement in Sutherland Springs Shooting Cases Alleging Background Check Negligence

The Department of Justice reached a $144 million agreement in principle on Wednesday to settle the civil cases brought on by a mass shooting in 2017 at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The attack left 26 dead, and the settlements will serve more than 75 plaintiffs who claimed the Air Force was negligent in providing the shooter’s information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. If it had been provided, he would have been deemed unable to buy guns from a federally licensed firearms dealer. Devin Patrick Kelly, the attacker in the mass shooting, had previously served in the Air Force and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, “No words or amount of money can diminish the immense tragedy of the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs.”

The Justice Department revealed that a federal district court in Texas held the United States responsible for the damages resulting from the shooting. The settlement agreement, which must be approved by a court, would “settle all claims for a total of $144.5 million.” Additionally, the Justice Department expressed the significance of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, stating that “the federal government is always striving to improve the functioning of that system.”

Kelley was a former member of the Air Force who had been discharged in 2014 for bad conduct; the Air Force has publicly recognised that they could have stopped Kelley from purchasing firearms from licensed firearms dealers and possessing body armor if they had entered his felony conviction for domestic violence into the FBI database. Judge Xavier Rodriguez said in 2021 that if Kelley’s history had been entered into the database, “it is more likely than not that Kelley would have been deterred from carrying out the Church shooting.” Two church members shot at Kelley after he attacked the church and killed a number of its members.

The DOJ settlement serves as an attempt to conclude a terrible chapter for those affected by the shooting. Fox News Digital reporter Greg Norman, David Spunt, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.