DOJ to pay $127.5 million to families in Parkland shooting settlement over FBI mistakes

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday it is paying $127.5 million to settle 40 civil cases over the 2018 Parkland, Fla., school shooting after the FBI mishandled tips on the shooter.

Survivors of the shooting and the families of the victims have been involved in litigation for more than three years. The settlement was first reported in November, but the DOJ did not publicize the settlement until now.

The DOJ denied any wrongdoing in its press release. 

"This settlement resolves all of the cases for $127.5 million. The settlement does not amount to an admission of fault by the United States," the department stated.

Former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Nikolas Cruz pled guilty last October to shooting and killing 17 students and staff members and wounding 17 others at the school on Valentines Day in 2018.

The FBI received two tips about Cruz prior to the shooting, but the agency said "protocols were not followed," Just the News reported.

In September 2017, Cruz commented on a YouTube video, "I’m going to be a professional school shooter," but the FBI did not follow up with him despite being alerted to the comment by the video's creator.

Just a few weeks before the shooting, the FBI received a second tip from a person who was close to Cruz and said the gunman had also  "desire to kill people."