The victims of a mass shooting at a Texas church and the Justice Department have agreed to settle a lawsuit against the government for $144.5 million. The deal, which involves over 75 plaintiffs, was officially approved on Wednesday by Attorney General Merrick Garland, and a judge is now expected to sign off on it. The 2017 attack on Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church, which left 26 people dead, prompted a protracted legal battle when a judge ruled that the federal government was partly responsible because the shooter’s criminal history wasn’t entered into a database that would have stopped him from being able to legally buy guns. “The Sutherland Springs families are heroes,” Jamal Alsaffar, the victims’ lawyer, told The New York Times. “They have gone through so much pain and loss in the most horrific way. But despite that, these families fought for justice, endured and won two trials against the federal government.”
