Parkland Victims' Families Win $127.5 Million Settlement From Justice Department Over FBI 'Negligence'
The families of the victims of the 2018 Parkland High School shooting won in court against the federal government after accusing it of negligence in its failure to prevent the attack.
On Thursday, the government agreed to pay the families impacted by the 2018 Parkland mass school shooting $127.5 million to settle 40 civil lawsuits against it, including from 16 of the 17 families that were affected. However, though it chose to settle, the Justice Department made clear that doing so amounts to an admission of guilt.
"It has been an honor to represent the Parkland families who, through their immeasurable grief, have devoted themselves to making the world a safer place," Kristina Infante, the lead lawyer representing the families, said in November.
The lawsuit stems from the Feb. 14, 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a former student went on a shooting spree, killing 17 people and wounding at least 17 more.
A number of survivors of the shooting became prominent gun-control activists, forming the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., to advocate for reform in 2018. However, several former students became targets of conspiracy theories and misinformation campaigns by far-right political figures like InfoWars host Alex Jones and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
At the center of the lawsuits filed against the Justice Department, the plaintiffs allege that the shooting took place in part because of negligence on the part of the FBI. After the shooting, it was reported that Cruz was previously reported to the bureau.
According to a timeline submitted to Congress in March 2018, the FBI first received a tip about a YouTube comment in September 2017 by a user named "Nikolas Cruz" who said he aspired to be a "professional school shooter." A month before the shooting, the FBI received another tip about Cruz but the call was never forwarded to any field office to investigate further.
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