Student held after 10 shot dead in school massacre
AN SHOTGUN attacker killed up to 10 victims yesterday after storming a school classroom and yelling “Surprise!”
The dead were mostly pupils, police in Texas said.
Police arrested 17-year-old student Dimitrios Pagourtzis.
On April 30 he shared photos of a T-shirt bearing the words “Born to Kill” and a black trench coat, which he is believed to have worn yesterday, on his now-deleted Facebook page.
Officers said another “person of interest” was also detained.
Witnesses described hearing a fire alarm go off around 8am.
One said the shooting happened in an art class, and one victim was a girl.
“There was someone that walked in with a shotgun and started shooting,” the student said. “And this girl got shot in the leg.”
Another student at the 1,400pupil Santa Fe High School said: “We thought it was a fire drill at first but the teacher said, ‘Start running’.
“We were in class, it was first period. The alarm started going off.”
Student Dakota Shrader added: “As soon as the alarms went off everybody just started Students and staff gather outside the Texas school after shooting running outside and next thing you know everybody looks, and you hear boom, boom, boom, and I just ran as fast as I could… so I could hide, and I called my mom.”
An unidentified police officer was shot at the scene with sources saying he was “clipped” and not seriously injured.
Law enforcement officials swept the campus for possible explosives after students reported seeing the gunman toss something into a classroom. News helicopters filmed students emptying their backpacks in front of armed officers in a field outside the school.
The incident, about 40 miles south of Houston, is the third school shooting in the past seven days, and the 22nd since the beginning of the year in America.
Speaking at the White House later, President Donald Trump said: “This has been going on too long in our country – too many years, too many decades now. We grieve for the terrible loss of life and send our support Special officers at the scene and love to everyone affected by this absolutely horrific attack.
“We’re with you in this tragic hour and we will be with you for ever.
“My administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools and to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others.”
In February, 17 people were killed at a high school in Florida by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz.