Suspect’s f riends baffled by shooting,
Friends and acquaintances of the teen accused in the shooting attack at Santa Fe High School that killed 10 and wounded 10 others said Friday there were no signs of the rampage to come.
Authorities said a motive wasn’t immediately clear for the nation’s deadliest attack since February.
The suspect, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, was held without bond in the Galveston County jail on charges of capital murder, Sheriff Henry Trochesset said. Gov. Greg Abbott said the .38-caliber pistol and the shotgun used in the attack were owned legally by Pagourtzis’ father.
“The red-flag warnings were either nonexistent or very imperceptible,” Abbott said, though he acknowledged Pagourtzis had recently posted a picture of a T-shirt reading “Born to Kill” on his Facebook page.
That same Facebook profile described Pagourtzis as planning to enter the U.S. Marine Corps next year, but the Marine Corps told The Associated Press it has reviewed its records and found no one by that name as either a recruit or a person in their delayed entry pool.
Classmates described Pagourtzis as quiet, an avid video game player who routinely wore a black trench coat and black boots to class. He had played football on the school’s junior varsity squad and danced as part of a church group. Those who know him expressed shock he might be involved in the killings.
In addition to Pagourtzis, a second person has also been detained, said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
The school went on lockdown at 8 a.m. An unknown number of possible explosive devices were found at the school and at a separate site nearby.
A woman who answered the phone at a number associated with the Pagourtzis family declined to speak with the AP.
“Please don’t call us. Give us our time right now, thank you,” she said.
Tristen Patterson, a 16-yearold junior at Sante Fe, considered Pagourtzis a friend. He said Pagourtzis was into video games that simulated war, and that he sometimes talked about guns — firearms that he liked or wanted to get. “But he never talked about killing people or anything like that,” Patterson said.
He said Pagourtzis didn’t show signs of being bullied but also rarely talked about himself. In one of their classes, Pagourtzis would sometimes enter the room “acting a little bit down or sad. A little bit sluggish,” Patterson said.
“But he never talked about why,” he said.
Rev. Stelios Sitaras of Assumption of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church in Galveston said he met Pagourtzis when the young man danced with a group as part of an annual festival in October. He said the Pagourtzises are members of a nearby parish.
Sitaras said he had never heard of the teen being in any sort of trouble.
“He is a quiet boy,” the priest said. “You would never think he would do anything like this.”