Six years after 26 people were killed in a mass shooting that occurred at a Texas church, the United States Justice Department has reached a $144.5 million settlement with the families of the victims following an acrimonious lawsuit.

Following the despicable attack, the families of the deceased and some survivors of the mass shooting at First Baptist Church in San Antonio had sued the government for being liable for the incident, saying they failed to carry out updates on its national firearms background check system.

Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the Federal District Court in San Antonio had in February this year ruled that the Air Force officials failed to submit important documents including a domestic violence conviction by a military court.

Those documents would have prevented the then 19-year-old perpetrator, Nikolas Cruz, who is currently serving 34 consecutive life sentences without parole, from legally obtaining the semi automatic weapon he used in the shooting.

The whopping sum for settlement was signed by attorney general, Vanita Gupta, who oversees the civil division and had negotiated with the lawyers of the victims which is the largest of its kind in the history of the United States.

It exceeded the $127.5 million paid out in 2018 by the department to the victims of Parkland school shooting in Florida which claimed the lives of 17 people and the $88 million paid to the families of those killed or injured in the church shooting in Charleston in 2015.

According to a Justice Department spokeswoman, the $144.5 million will resolve claims of 75 plaintiffs as the settlement awaits the judge’s approval with both sides confident that he will sign it off.