More than 4,400 relatives and victims of the Las Vegas Strip shooting, the deadliest in recent US history, will receive a settlement totaling $800m from the casino company MGM Resorts International and its insurers, a court announced on Wednesday.
The action makes final a deal settling dozens of lawsuits on the eve of the third anniversary of the mass shooting that killed 58 people and injured more than 850 at an open-air concert near the Mandalay Bay resort.
“By the grace of God, myself and my family are going to be OK,” said Stephanie Fraser, a plaintiff in the lawsuit from La Palma, California. “I needed to be able to protect our kids.”
Authorities said more than 22,000 people were attending an outdoor music festival when a gunman firing military-style weapons from windows on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay rained rapid-fire bullets into the crowd.
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Fraser’s husband of 13 years, Brian, a vice-president at a mortgage company, died after being shot in the chest as they danced while the country music singer Jason Aldean performed.
“With this coming to an end, it brings closure and allows us to put pieces back together,” Fraser said. “Brian would want that for us.”
MGM Resorts, owner of the hotel and the concert venue, acknowledged no liability. It will pay $49m, while its insurance companies will pay $751m.
“We are grateful that the decision brings families, victims and the community closer to closure,” the company said in a statement. It noted the anniversary of the 1 October 2017 event, calling it “a time of great sadness and reflection”. Memorial ceremonies are scheduled on Thursday at several venues in Las Vegas.
Robert Eglet, the plaintiffs’ lawyer who spent a year arranging the settlement with clients, legal firms and attorneys in at least 10 states, said the amounts to be disbursed would be determined by two retired judges and he was hopeful that payments would begin going out by the end of the year.
Eglet previously said that everyone involved “recognized there are no winners in long, drawn-out litigation with multiple trials where people and the community are reliving the event every time we try a case”.
A line-by-line list of victims, identified by their initials only, runs for more than 170 pages of a 225-page civil complaint filed in September seeking compensation and punitive damages from MGM Resorts. It accuses the casino company of negligence, wrongful death and liability in the shooting. Plaintiffs came from nearly every state in the US, at least eight Canadian provinces, the United Kingdom, Iran and Ireland.
In various lawsuits, victims and families accused MGM Resorts of failing to protect people at the concert venue or stop the shooter from amassing an arsenal of weapons and ammunition over several days before he opened fire.
Millions of dollars could go to the most severely and permanently injured, Eglet said, depending on factors including age, number of dependents, type of injuries, previous and future medical treatment, and ability to work.
Court filings in the case do not mention the gunman, Stephen Paddock, who killed himself before police closed in.
Las Vegas police and the FBI determined the 64-year-old retired accountant and high-stakes poker player meticulously planned the attack and acted alone. They theorized he may have sought notoriety but said they never determined a clear motive for the attack.
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