A Clark County, Nev., judge on Wednesday approved a payout of $800 million to the victims and relatives of the 2017 mass shooting at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Hotel.
District Court Judge Linda Bell approved the payout from MGM Resorts International to more than 4,400 people, according to The Associated Press. Bell cited “near-unanimous participation in the settlement among potential claimants” in her order.
Gunman Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and wounded more than 850 who were attending an open-air concert in the Oct. 1 shooting, the deadliest shooting by a single shooter in modern U.S. history. He fired from the window of the hotel’s 32nd floor.
MGM Resorts, which did not acknowledge fault with the payout, will pay $49 million in the settlement, with its insurers covering the balance.
“We are grateful that the decision brings families, victims and the community closer to closure,” the company said in a statement.
“There’ve been no objections and we expect no appeals,” Robert Eglet, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told The Associated Press. “We’ll send out notices of the order. After 30 days the $800 million will be deposited.”
Both the plaintiffs and the defendants, he added, “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.”
Eglet said the biggest payouts would go to those with permanent and severe injuries, up to millions of dollars. Everyone who filed a claim for unseen injuries and sought neither therapy nor medical attention will receive a minimum of $5,000, he said.
On Thursday, the third anniversary of the shooting, several Las Vegas venues are slated to hold memorials for the victims. The names of the dead will be read beginning at 10:05 p.m., when Paddock began firing, according to the AP.
