Posted on 02/08/2022 10:13:30 AM PST by aimhigh
A federal judge on Monday ruled that the Air Force must pay more than $230 million to survivors and victims' families of the 2017 shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
Driving the news: U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in July ruled that the Air Force holds 60% of the responsibility for the shooting in the Texas church because it failed to enter the shooter's criminal history into a federal background check database used for gun purchases. More than 25 people were killed in the shooting.
Rodriguez on Monday ordered the Air Force to pay millions, which will compensate more than 80 family members of victims and survivors, for "pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, impairment, and loss of companionship or consortium."
(Excerpt) Read more at axios.com ...
Taxpayers pay.
Hell of a ruling. The implications could be staggering if the judgement holds up after appeals. Any thoughts from the lawyer types here?
Good. This clown showed up at Cannon AFB in Clovis with weapons to kill a commander, tortured dogs, and was arrested for strangling his wife. All of his USAF crimes should have been enough for him to be in prison somewhere for a long long time. But they dropped the ball on that and couldn’t even be bothered to put his crimes on record where they could have been seen in a background check.
They were the proximate cause. Had they locked him up when they should have, he would still be in a cell.
The air force is sovereign and not liable to a ruling by a corrupt judge
If they are required by law to provide the information and failed to do so, and because of that failure this person was able to legally purchase the gun used, and had that information been in the system he would not have been allowed to purchase the gun, then there is no way the Air Force doesn’t have liability in this.
I am no lawyer, but if the above facts are all true, then Air Force has liability here.
A Bushie.
No society can survive the billions of transfer payments these “judges” hand out. Even if the name had been entered the guy could have easily got a gun from his pals at the mosque or just some gang member somewhere. Guns are easy to acquire anywhere in the USA.
Can someone remind me what his motive was?
I am just trying to understand this situation- Were the crimes (attempted murder, animal cruelty and the strangulation) committed on the Air Force Base, or in the state of New Mexico? Just wondering whether it was really the USAF, or the State of NM.
Thank for pointing this out. I well remember the events of that shooting and was horrified at the time to read how negligent the Air Force was.
They deserve the 60% liability assessed as blame here.
I agree. I am not a lawyer either, and the way the courts have ruled so politically lately, I am not sure that you can predict a ruling. It will be interesting if we do get a current practicing lawyer to weigh in on this forum.
In October 2012, he was charged with assaulting his wife and fracturing his toddler stepson’s skull. In response, Kelley made death threats against the superior officers who charged him, and he was caught sneaking firearms onto Holloman Air Force Base.
They dropped the firearms charge. The skull fracture on a child alone was enough to lock him up for a decade. So was the gun charge and death threats to superior officers. He got 12 months.
That’s not entirely accurate. There are circumstances where a case can proceed, and this is a clear fit.
I doubt that the Airforce will actually pay this amount. It will get tied up before they do that, its the Fed Gov and Christians after all.
If memory serves, his mother-in-law was attending services at the local Baptist church.
Using this logic, what’s the liability for Government agencies and Private entities for trafficing illegal aliens that commit heinous crimes?
We’ve given 25 times that amount to Ukraine. We probably spend that much studying lesbian bullfrogs with covid.
“Even if the name had been entered the guy could have easily got a gun from his pals at the mosque or just some gang member somewhere.
Not in prison you can’t. He should have been in Leavenworth in 2017 for giving a toddler a skull fracture, strangling his wife, threating to kill the commanding officer and getting caught bringing he gun onto base to do so... all within 5 years of the shooting.
The USAF reduced it all to misdemeanors, dropped the gun charge, gave him a few months in the brig and dumped him out into society.
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