THE US Justice Department announced yesterday that it had reached a US$127.5 million (RM535.1 million) settlement with survivors and relatives of victims of the 2018 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

The agreement settles all 40 of the civil cases stemming from the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead and 17 wounded, the department said in a statement.

“The settlement does not amount to an admission of fault by the United States,” it said.

Survivors of the shooting – the deadliest ever at a high school in the US – and the families of 16 of the people killed had sued the government for damages.

Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the school, pleaded guilty in October last year to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder.

In their lawsuits, survivors and relatives accused the FBI of negligence for failing to act on tips received prior to the attack that Cruz was potentially dangerous.

“I know he’s going to explode,” a woman who knew Cruz said on the FBI’s tip line on January 5, 2018, five weeks before the shooting.

Cruz was going to “slip into a school and start shooting the place up,” the woman allegedly told the FBI.

“Contrary to its own established rules, the FBI failed to take any action whatsoever with the information it received,” the lawsuit charged.

Cruz had also engaged in “disturbing and threatening” behaviour on numerous previous occasions, including posting pictures on social media displaying weapons, the suit said. – AFP, March 17, 2022.