GUNMAN OPENS FIRE AT TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL
A gunman opened fire at a Houston-area high school Friday, killing at least 10 people, most of them students, authorities said, in the nation’s deadliest such attack since the massacre in Florida that gave rise to a campaign by teens for gun control.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said he could not be precise about the number of deaths at Santa Fe High School, which went on lockdown around 8 a.m.
Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset says in a statement that a student, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, is being held without bond in the Galveston County jail.
An unknown number of possible explosive devices were found at the school and off campus. Authorities were in the process of rendering them safe and asked the public to call 911 if they see anything suspicious.
The district confirmed an unspecified number of injuries but did not release details. A school police officer was shot, officials said, but there was no immediate word on his condition.
Michael Farina, 17, said he was on the other side of campus when the shooting began and thought it was a fire drill. He was holding a door
open for special education students in wheelchairs when a principal came bounding down the hall and telling everyone to run. Another teacher yelled out, “It is real.”
Students were led to take cover behind a car shop across the street from the school. Some still did not feel safe and began jumping the
fence behind the shop to run even farther away, Farina said.
“I debated doing that myself,” he said.
Senior Logan Roberds said he was near the school’s art room when he heard a fire alarm and left the building with other students. Once outside, Roberds
said, he heard two loud bangs. He initially thought somebody was loudly hitting a trash can. Then came three more bangs.
“That’s when the teachers told us to run,” he said. At that point, Roberds said, he told himself, “Oh my God, this is not fake. This is actually happening.”