DOJ reaches tentative $144.5 million settlement with victims of Sutherland Springs church mass shooting
Kenneth and Irene Hernandez pay their respects as they visit a makeshift memorial with crosses placed near the scene of a shooting at the First Baptist Church on Nov. 6
By Hannah Rabinowitz and Dakin Andone, CNN
The US Department of Justice on Wednesday announced it had reached an “agreement in principle” to settle claims from the November 2017 mass shooting at a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church for $144.5 million, according to a news release.
A federal court in 2021 ruled the US government was liable for damages caused by the shooting, in which 26 people were killed and 22 others wounded. The US Air Force, a judge concluded, failed to exercise reasonable care when it didn’t submit the shooter’s criminal history to the FBI’s background check system, which increased the risk of physical harm to the general public.
The shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, was a former member of the Air Force, which acknowledged after the shooting it did not relay the killer’s court martial conviction for domestic assault to civilian law enforcement — a move that could have prevented Kelley from purchasing the firearms he used.
A court must still approve some parts of the settlements, the DOJ release said Wednesday.
“No words or amount of money can diminish the immense tragedy of the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said. “Today’s announcement brings the litigation to a close, ending a painful chapter for the victims of this unthinkable crime.”
On a Sunday morning in November 2017, the shooter, dressed in all-black tactical gear, opened fire on worshippers at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, a small rural community about 30 miles east of San Antonio. The pastor’s 14-year-old daughter and the shooter’s grandmother-in-law were among those killed.
As Kelley was leaving the church, a local resident armed with a rifle confronted the shooter and exchanged gunfire. Kelley fled in his vehicle to a neighboring county, where law enforcement found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Kelley was charged in military court in 2012 on suspicion of assaulting his spouse and their child. Kelley received a bad conduct discharge, confinement for 12 months, and was demoted to E-1, or airman basic.
Despite his history of domestic abuse and questionable behavior involving firearms, Kelley was able to purchase the Ruger AR-556 rifle he used in the shooting from a store in April 2016, a law enforcement official previously told CNN.
The failure to relay information about the shooter’s martial conviction prevented its entry into the National Crime Information Center, a federal database that must be checked before someone is able to purchase a firearm. If it had, it should have prevented gun sales to Kelley.
A suit was brought by survivors of the shooting and relatives of the victims, and Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the Western District of Texas found the government 60% responsible for the harm that happened and liable for damages.
DOJ earlier this year appealed the 2021 ruling, though a spokesperson told CNN at the time that the government and plaintiffs were working toward an out-of-court resolution.
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CNN’s Ashley Killough, Paul LeBlanc and Devan Cole contributed to this report.
