The Department of Justice has reached a settlement with survivors and families of victims of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The lawsuit was filed against the FBI over the agency's failure to properly investigate tips about the gunman, former student Nikolas Cruz.
In court documents, the Justice Department said it is finalizing the deal, and did not state the settlement amount. Two people familiar with the matter told The New York Times the DOJ will likely pay about $130 million to 40 survivors and families, but that number could change.
Cruz shot and killed 17 people and injured 17 others on Feb. 14, 2018. Five months before the shooting, a Mississippi bail bondsman notified the FBI about a comment left on his YouTube page by a user named "nikolas cruz" who said he planned to be "a professional school shooter." Two FBI agents interviewed the bail bondsman, and after they determined there wasn't sufficient information to link the comment to a specific person, the inquiry was closed.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The FBI received a second tip about Cruz six weeks prior to the shooting. A woman who said she was a family friend told the FBI that Cruz posted on Instagram that he was gathering weapons and ammunition. "I know he's going to explode," the woman said, adding that she was afraid Cruz "was going to slip into a school and start shooting the place up."
Two days after the shooting, the FBI revealed it received tips about Cruz, but did not investigate them in accordance to protocols, leading to 40 individuals and families suing the agency for negligence. Cruz, now 23, pleaded guilty last month to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. Next year, a jury will decide whether Cruz will serve life in prison or receive the death penalty.
-
Political cartoons for October 21Cartoons Tuesday’s political cartoons include a high-profile theft, Epstein files keeping Donald Trump up at night, Halloween costumes and scary GOP stories
-
Five things we learnt from Virginia Giuffre’s memoirThe Explainer Nobody’s Girl recounts ‘harrowing’ details of Giuffre’s suffering as a teenage victim of Jeffrey Epstein and his circle
-
Prince Andrew: a timeline of disgraced royal’s Epstein scandalIn Depth How the Queen’s favourite child went from Falklands War hero to public pariah
-
Thieves nab French crown jewels from LouvreSpeed Read A gang of thieves stole 19th century royal jewels from the Paris museum’s Galerie d’Apollon
-
Arsonist who attacked Shapiro gets 25-50 yearsSpeed Read Cody Balmer broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and tried to burn it down
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Firespeed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan churchSpeed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
-
Combs convicted on 2 of 5 charges, denied bailSpeed Read Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambushSpeed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived
