A federal judge on Monday ruled that the U.S. Air Force must pay survivors and families of the 26 people killed in the attack in Sutherland Springs, Texas, for its failure to report the gunman’s criminal history.
A federal judge ordered the U.S. Air Force on Monday to pay more than $230 million to the survivors and the families of the victims of a 2017 shooting at a Texas church because the Air Force had failed to report the gunman’s criminal history.
In his ruling, Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas wrote that the Air Force could have blocked the gunman, Devin P. Kelley, who had served on an Air Force base in New Mexico, from buying the rifle he used to kill 26 people on Nov. 5, 2017, at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
For its failure to report Mr. Kelley’s 2012 conviction for domestic assault, the Air Force must pay damages to the victims for their “pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, impairment and loss of companionship,” the judge wrote. He added that the case was “unprecedented in kind and scope.”
The ruling came in a lawsuit brought against the federal government by the families of the victims.
“Ultimately, there is no satisfying way to determine the worth of these families’ pain,” the judge wrote.
In July, Judge Rodriguez ruled that the Air Force was “60 percent responsible” for the massacre.
Under federal law, Mr. Kelley should not have been allowed to buy the military-style rifle or the three other guns he acquired before the shooting. He purchased the weapons after he was convicted of domestic assault against his wife and stepson, whose skull he admitted to cracking.
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Mr. Kelley received a “bad conduct” discharge from the Air Force in 2014 after almost five years of service.
After the shooting, the Air Force acknowledged its error, saying that it should have reported Mr. Kelley’s conviction to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A conviction should have prevented him from buying guns.
The Air Force also said after the shooting that it was looking into whether other convictions had been improperly left unreported to a federal database for firearms background checks.
Jamal Alsaffar, one of the lawyers who represented the victims, said on Monday night that the families were relieved by the ruling.
“The judge recognizing there must be some accountability for the violence is really important for them,” said Mr. Alsaffar, a lawyer for National Trial Law, a law firm in Austin.
On Monday night, Ann Stefanek, a spokeswoman for the Air Force, said that it planned to appeal the ruling. “We are aware of the court’s award and are reviewing the judge’s ruling,” she said.
On Nov. 15, 2017, Mr. Kelley walked into a Sunday service at a small Baptist church and fired at the parishioners worshiping in the pews. The victims ranged in age from 5 to 72, and among the dead were a pregnant woman and the pastor’s 14-year-old daughter.
A neighbor shot Mr. Kelley twice as he exited the church. Mr. Kelley jumped in his car and led the neighbor and another man in a car chase. The gunman crashed his car and was found dead behind the wheel, where officials said he had shot himself in the head.
In his 185-page ruling, Judge Rodriguez enumerated the damage that the shooting caused each victim and some of their family members, totaling around 80 people. The highest single award was $7 million.
John Porter Holcombe, who survived the shooting but whose wife, stepchildren and parents were killed, was awarded more than $4.6 million. His wife’s estate was awarded $7 million.
“He has not forgotten the sight of his murdered wife surrounded by their dead children,” Judge Rodriguez wrote.
