DoJ reaches $88m settlement with families of Charleston shooting victims

Lawsuit accused federal agencies of faulty background check that allowed Dylann Roof to purchase a gun

The families of nine people who died in a 2015 racist mass shooting at a Black South Carolina church have reached a settlement with the justice department in a lawsuit that accused federal agencies of a faulty background check that allowed the white supremacist killer Dylann Roof to purchase a gun.

The justice department will pay $88m, which includes $63m for the victims' families as well as $25m for five survivors who were injured at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina. Roof wanted to start a race war by targeting the 200-year-old historically Black congregation.