The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has settled civil cases stemming from a 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, amounting to $127.5 million.
The Justice Department resolved 40 civil cases, brought forth by survivors of the shooting and families of 16 of the victims killed, while denying that the United States was at fault in the deadliest high school shooting in the nation’s history.
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“The settlement does not amount to an admission of fault by the United States. The parties have been in litigation since late 2018, when the survivors of the shooting, and the families of 16 people killed, sued the government,” the department wrote in a statement.
The parties sued the government for damages following the shooting after it came to light that the FBI had received an anonymous tip about Nikolas Cruz, the gunman, five weeks prior to the massacre.
In a call to the tip line, the person said Cruz had purchased guns and was worried about him “getting into a school and just shooting the place up.”
On Valentine’s Day in 2018, Cruz, a former student, brought a rifle and ammunition into the school, killing 17 and injuring 17 others. Cruz pleaded guilty in October 2021 to 17 counts of premeditated first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder. His sentencing trial is set for April.
Paperwork shows that the parties involved in the settlement will dismiss the case after all funds have been received, a process that is still in progress, as reported by CBS News.
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In December, Florida’s Broward County School District announced that it had reached a $25 million settlement with 51 plaintiffs, including families of the 17 victims as well as students and staff who were injured.
