US Justice Department to pay families of Parkland shooting massacre $130 million

Filing claimed that the agency failed to stop the gunman despite receiving information he intended to attack

Law enforcement officers block off the entrance to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 15, 2018 in Parkland, Florida, following a deadly shooting at the school. AP

The families of most of those killed and wounded in the 2018 Florida high school massacre announced Monday they have settled their lawsuit against the federal government for roughly $130 million over the FBI’s failure to stop the gunman even though it had received information he intended to attack.

Attorneys for 16 of the 17 killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland said they have reached a confidential settlement with the government over the FBI’s failure to investigate a tip it received about a month before the massacre. The 17th family chose not to sue.

“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,” their lead attorney, Kristina Infante, said in a statement.

“Although no resolution could ever restore what the Parkland families lost, this settlement marks an important step toward justice.”

Andrew Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter Meadow died in the shooting, commended the FBI for accepting responsibility for its inaction, comparing it to the Broward County school district and sheriff’s office, the school security staff and the psychologists who treated the shooter. He believes they all failed to stop the shooter and have ducked responsibility.

“The FBI has made changes to make sure this never happens again,” Mr Pollack said.

About five weeks before the February 14, 2018, shooting, an FBI tip line received a call saying a former Stoneman Douglas student, Nikolas Cruz, had bought guns and planned to “slip into a school and start shooting the place up.”

“I know he’s going to explode,” the caller told the FBI.

But that information was never forwarded to the FBI’s South Florida office and Cruz was never contacted. He had been expelled from the school a year earlier and had a long history of emotional and behavioral problems.

Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty last month to 17 counts of first-degree murder. He will receive either a death sentence or life in prison after a penalty trial that is scheduled to start in January.