The United States Department of Justice announced on Wednesday a settlement in the amount of 127.5 million dollars with the relatives of the victims of the shooting in which 17 people died at a Parkland (Florida) institute in 2018.
The federal entity rated the massacre at the hands of a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas School, Nikolas Cruz, as “the deadliest high school shooting in American history.”
“The parties have been in litigation since late 2018, when the survivors of the shooting and the families of the 16 people killed sued the government for damages,” the Department of Justice details in a statement.
USA regarding the agreement
However, the Department of Justice clarifies that “the agreement does not amount to an admission of guilt by the United States.”
The $127.5 million settlement has resolved “all 40 civil cases that arose from the mass shooting,” the statement added.
At the end of November 2021, relatives of the victims of the shooting entered into the negotiation with the Department of Justice. This in order to close a lawsuit once morest the US government considering that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did not act to prevent the massacre.
Demand from relatives of the victims
The lawsuit was filed by relatives of 16 of the 17 dead who believe the FBI ignored a tip that Cruz was planning a school shooting.
According to Wednesday’s statement, the case was handled by the Justice Department’s Civil Division and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Last February, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, joined the commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the shooting with a message of support for the fight once morest the “epidemic of armed violence” and the need to create a “safer country for everyone”.
pleaded guilty
The presidential message came ahead of events organized in Florida to remember the 14 students and 3 staff members of the Marjory Douglas Stoneman Institute in Parkland who died on February 14, 2018 from the shots fired with an assault rifle by Cruz, who He pleaded guilty to their deaths and will stand trial starting in April.
In October 2021, Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 counts of first-degree premeditated murder and 17 counts of first-degree attempted murder.
Cruz is in prison awaiting a trial whose start has been delayed for various reasons and which might end with a death sentence.
