The US government announced Thursday, October 28 that it would pay $ 88 million to the relatives of nine African-Americans killed by a white supremacist in a Charleston church in 2015 and to survivors of the tragedy.
In exchange, these victims waive lawsuits against the federal police for "
negligence
" which allowed the killer, Dylann Roof, to buy a weapon when, according to their complaint, the check of his background should have blocked the transaction. .
Read also Charleston: Dylann Roof sentenced to death for his nine racist murders
The shooting "
was a horrific crime motivated by hate, which caused immeasurable suffering to the families of the victims and the survivors,
" Justice Minister Merrick Garland said in a statement after finalizing the agreement with representatives of the victims.
"
88 million is one of the largest sums allocated to a civil rights case in the history of the United States,
" said their lawyer Bakari Sellers during a press briefing.
It will be divided between the five survivors of the attack who will affect 5 million each, and the relatives of the nine people killed, to the tune of 6 to 7.5 million for each death.
The killer expressed no regrets
On June 17, 2015, 21-year-old Dylann Roof opened fire 77 times in a Methodist church in Charleston, riddling nine black worshipers with bullets who had just greeted him for a Sunday school session. Driven by visceral racism, he had planned the massacre for six months. This shooting had all the more marked the opinion that it had bloodied a place symbol of the fight against slavery: the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church brings together the oldest black community of this historic city of the plantation era. , located in the southeastern United States.
The young extremist was sentenced in early 2017 to the death penalty, without having expressed any regrets or apologies. His sentence was upheld on appeal this summer. Among his victims was the pastor of the parish, Clementa Pinckney, a prominent figure in the local black community and elected Democrat in the South Carolina Senate. His eulogy was delivered by President Barack Obama. Clementa Pinckney's eldest daughter Malana thanked Democrat Joe Biden's government for the deal on Thursday. "
No money will ever replace my father,
" she told reporters. But "
it is important for me to see that the government recognizes the existence of racism in the country (...) as well as the problem of firearms and tries to correct a mistake
".
According to the victims' complaint, Dylann Roof had been arrested in possession of drugs a few months before his assault and, had his background check been properly conducted, it should have prevented him from purchasing the semi-automatic pistol with which he perpetrated his crime.
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