Justice Department reaches $88 million settlement with families of 2015 Charleston church shooting

The Justice Department has reached an $88 million civil settlement with survivors and the families of victims from the 2015 mass shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

The agreement stems from a loophole in the background check system that allowed the shooter to purchase a gun.

“This is pain that I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life,” said Eliana Pinckney, who lost her father, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, in the shooting.

Her dad, who served as the church’s pastor, was one of nine people killed.

Eliana Pinckney was just 11 at the time of her father’s death, and on Thursday she stood alongside her younger sister and mother as the settlement was announced by attorneys.

“No amount of compensation will ever replace my father’s life,” Eliana Pinckney said. “It allows me and my sister to have the opportunity to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to make sure my father’s legacy doesn’t go away.”

“Even though Clementa is not here with us physically, I know spiritually he’s with us, and I know that he’s smiling down on us right now,” said her mother Jennifer Pinkney.

Investigators said the shooter, Dylann Roof, was a white supremacist who told them he wanted to start a race war.

The families sued alleging that the FBI’s criminal background check system failed to stop Roof from getting a gun.

According to federal law, if a background check is not completed within three business days, the dealer can sell the weapon.

Roof had a prior drug charge and should not have been sold a gun, but because his background check was incomplete, he could make the purchase.

The background check delay that allowed Roof to buy a gun often is known as the “Charleston loophole.”

The number 88 in the settlement dollar amount is symbolic because 88 is the white supremacist code for “Heil Hitler.” Attorneys said Roof had it written on his shoes.

“Eighty-eight was steeped in so much white supremacy and hate, and so today we get to give a big ‘F.U.’ to the white supremacists and racists in this country,” attorney Bakari Sellers said.

For the victims’ families, there is a sense of justice from the settlement but they said their journey toward healing is on going.

“To make sure we are doing everything we can with the rest of our lives, living to our fullest potential and making sure that his legacy stays uplifted,” Eliana Pinckney said.

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