Two days after the shooting, the FBI said it failed to probe the tips it had received in accordance with its protocols.
“It has been an honor to represent the Parkland families who, through their immeasurable grief, have devoted themselves to making the world a safer place,” Kristina Infante of Podhurst Orseck, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a press release. “Although no resolution could ever restore what the Parkland families lost, this settlement marks an important step toward justice.”
The Epoch Times has contacted the Justice Department for comment.
The Feb. 14, 2018 school shooting is one of the deadliest in U.S. history. The accused shooter, Nikolas Cruz, returned to his former campus with an AR-15 rifle that ended in the deaths of 17 people before he was apprehended by law enforcement officials.
Cruz was 19 and an expelled student at the time of the shooting.
Cruz pleaded guilty last month in a Broward County court to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
“I am very sorry for what I did and I have to live with it every day,” Cruz said on Oct. 20, after his pleas were entered. “And that if I were to get a second chance I will do everything in my power to try to help others … I have to live with this every day, and it brings me nightmares that I can’t live with myself sometimes.”
Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty in the case. Under Florida law, cases involving the death penalty must be decided by a jury. The upcoming penalty phase of the case is scheduled to begin in January, 2022.