‘SURPRISE’
What gunman, 17, shouted as he burst into US class before shooting ten in deadliest attack since Florida massacre
A 17-YEAR-old boy with a shotgun and revolver has killed ten people and injured ten others at a Texas high school, authorities say.
The suspected gunman, who is in custody, also had explosive devices, including a Molotov cocktail, that were found in the school and nearby, according to governor Greg Abbott.
He said the assault was ‘one of the most heinous that we’ve ever seen in the history of Texas schools’.
The governor said the assailant intended to kill himself but gave up and told police that he did not have the courage to take his own life.
A law enforcement official identified a person in custody over the shooting as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17. It was the US’s deadliest such attack since February’s massacre in Florida, which gave rise to a campaign by teens for gun control.
Another ten people were wounded at the school in Santa Fe. One hospital reported treating eight patients. Six were released, one was in a critical condition and another in fair condition.
The shooting is all but certain to re-ignite the country’s debate over gun regulations, coming just three months after the Florida attack that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
‘It’s been happening everywhere. I’ve always kind of felt like that eventually it was going to happen here too,’ Santa Fe student Paige Curry told Houston television station KTRK.
‘I don’t know. I wasn’t surprised. I was just scared.’
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 students in wheelchairs when a principal rushed down the hall telling everyone to run. Another teacher yelled: ‘It is real!’
Students took cover behind a car shop across the street from the school. Some still did not feel safe and began jumping a fence to run even further away, Farina said.
‘I debated doing that myself,’ he added. A woman who answered the phone at a number associated with the Pagourtzis family declined to speak. ‘Give us our time right now, thank you,’ she said. Pagourtzis, who is charged with murder, plays on the Santa Fe High School junior varsity football team, and is a member of a dance squad with a local Greek Orthodox church.
Acquaintances described him as quiet and unassuming, an avid video game player who routinely wore a black trench coat and black boots to class.
The suspect used a shotgun and .38 revolver obtained from his father, who owned them legally, Mr Abbott said. It was not clear whether the father knew his son had taken them.
One or two other people of interest were being interviewed about the shooting, Mr Abbott added.
The calls for tighter gun controls that have swelled since February have barely registered in gun-loving Texas – at least to this point.
The state hosted the NRA’s annual conference earlier this month.
Teacher yelled: ‘It is real’