Feds to Pay $144.5 Million to Victims of Church Shooting
April 5, 2023 | Texas
The federal government has agreed to pay victims of a 2017 church shooting in Texas $144.5 million to compensate them for the Air Force’s failure to flag the shooter as someone who shouldn’t be able to buy a gun.
The settlement could defuse a thorny issue for the Biden administration, which was fighting the payment in court even as President Biden argues for more background checks and other gun controls.
Devin Patrick Kelley had a prior domestic violence assault conviction on his record but the Air Force didn’t report it to the FBI, so it didn’t register in the background check when Kelley bought multiple guns, some of which he used to attack the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. (Excerpt from The Washington Times.)
