Obama OKs, Expedites Huge $29M Payout to Charleston Victims
By Jason Devaney | Wednesday, 01 Jul 2015 12:02 PM
The Obama administration is fast-tracking a huge payout to the victims of the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting, giving the families of those slain millions more than victims from Sandy Hook, Boston, and other mass murders.
The White House will send $29 million to South Carolina in the wake of the June 17 shooting that left nine people dead in a historic black church, according to a Reuters report. All of the victims were black, and it was called a hate crime in the hours following it.
According to Reuters, a chunk of the $29 million — which was allocated as part of the government's national Crime Victim Assistance Formula Grant program — can help provide services to the families of those killed. Among the dead was Pastor Clementa Pinckney, who also served as a South Carolina state senator.
The $29 million payout is significantly more than what was given to the victims of the 2012 Aurora, Colorado, theater shooting ($2.9 million); the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting ($1.5 million); and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing ($8.3 million).
The Department of Justice press release detailing the payout for the Aurora victims read, "The total number of victims of this crime is more than 1,500. This includes the twelve killed, sixty-nine wounded and their families, other people in the theater complex at that time, people evacuated from an apartment complex where explosive devices were discovered, and first responders to the emergency."
The release pertaining to the Sandy Hook shooting makes no mention of the number of victims, but the massacre did result in the death of 20 children and seven adults. The shooter, Adam Lanza, shot and killed himself after the shooting.
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/29-...#ixzz3efCjW3pY