Editorial: Why won’t Biden’s Justice Department pay Sutherland Springs victims?
People attend a candle light vigil for the shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017. A trial has begun to assess damages that the U.S. Air Force owes to survivors and families of those killed in a 2017 mass shooting at a Texas church. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez began to hear testimony Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, in the damages phase of the case, which is expected to last two weeks.
Earlier this year, U.S. Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the Western District of Texas ordered the U.S. Air Force to pay victims of the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting $230 million in damages. His ruling was based on the uncontested finding that the Air Force on six separate occasions failed to forward the shooter’s criminal history to the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
A young father paralyzed from the waist down, An older woman shot multiple times and now requiring around-the-clock care from her adult daughter. A little boy who has endured more than 30 surgeries since being shot five times. Their stories are heart-rending, and financial compensation can’t repair broken hearts. What it can do is help pay for lifelong medical treatment, provide for therapy and counseling, help with bills for those no longer able to work.
What that means, at best, is that the Sutherland Springs plaintiffs will have to wait months, if not years, before they ever see a dime of compensation. What it means, at worst, is that the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals could decide that the plaintiffs deserve only a pittance, maybe nothing. Whatever the outcome, the Sutherland Springs survivors and family members can anticipate having to recount to a court yet again the horrendous details of that day in November nearly five years ago.
Or, is the Justice Department simply trying to run out the clock, as one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys suggests. Five elderly victims have died awaiting the final verdict.
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