Police say suspect confesses to Texas shooting Majority of 10 killed were students; 13 hurt

SANTA FE, Texas — This time, it happened during first period.

The day after a student went on a shooting rampage at a Texas high school, a Houston-area community grappled with a horrific reality that has unfolded in so many other places across the nation.

On Friday morning, a 17-year-old student armed with a shotgun and a pistol stormed Santa Fe High School, about 30 miles southeast of Houston, and opened fire in an art class, officials said.

He killed at least 10 people and wounded 13 others, including a school resource officer who was left in critical condition, police said, before surrendering to the officers who confronted him.

Of those killed, eight were students and two were teachers, Santa Fe Independent School District Superintendent Leigh Wall said in a letter to parents.

“Our community has suffered a terrible tragedy,” Wall wrote. “We are all feeling the overwhelming grief of this horrific event.”

Santa Fe High School became the latest scene of carnage in what has become a national epidemic of mass shootings. For the second time in the past three months, the victims were children and their teachers.

Isabelle Laymance, 15, was in art class, drawing geometric shapes, when she heard gunshots. She froze for a moment, then she ran to a back door leading to a patio, but it was locked. She and seven other students barricaded themselves in a supply closet that

connected two art classrooms. She lay on the floor and called police, and then called her mother, whispering “I love you” while holding a friend’s hand. They shushed each other, hoping to avoid detection.

The trenchcoat-clad gunman – whom police identified as student Dimitrios Pagourtzis – came into the first art classroom and began shooting. He knew students were hiding in the supply closet, Isabelle said.

“He said, ‘Surprise,’ and then he started shooting, and he killed one or two people. And he shot a girl in the leg. In the closet. He shot through the window,” she said. “We blocked the doors with ceramic makers, and he kept on trying to get in and he kept on shooting inside the closet.”

She called police three times over the course of 30 terrifying minutes. A police dispatcher told her to be quiet and assured her that help was on the way, she said.

The gunman kept shooting, cursing and yelling. He shot a police officer who approached, then engaged other officers in discussion, offering to surrender.

“He kept saying ‘If I come out, don’t shoot me.’ They didn’t shoot him; they just put him in handcuffs,” she said.

Pagourtzis, whom students described as a quiet loner, was held Friday without bond at the Galveston County jail, charged with capital murder and aggravated assault on a peace officer. It was unclear what motivated the attack, as authorities said it came without any obvious warning.

Pagourtzis made his first court appearance Friday evening, a little more than 10 hours after the massacre. He spoke quietly, saying, “Yes, sir,” when asked if he wanted a court-appointed attorney. After the brief hearing, Pagourtzis was led away.

Police said Pagourtzis gave a statement admitting responsibility for the shooting, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in court. Pagourtzis told police that he went into the school wearing a trench coat and wielding two guns, intent on killing people.

The affidavit, which identifies him as Dimitrios Pagourtzis Jr., states that the 17-year-old told police that “he did not shoot students he did like so he could have his story told.”

The two guns used in the shooting belong to Pagourtzis’s father, according to Gov. Greg Abbott, who said it was unclear if the father knew his son had taken them. Unlike many other mass shootings carried out with high-powered rifles such as the AR15, this one, authorities said, included relatively common weapons.

Police said they also found explosive devices inside the school and at locations off campus.

Authorities said they also were scrutinizing two other potential suspects in the shooting. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said officials questioned another student, described as “a person of interest.” Abbott said police also hoped to speak with a third person who he said could have “certain information,” though he did not elaborate.

Three officers responded to the attack, officials said. The first to confront the shooter was school safety officer John Barnes, a retired Houston police officer who, according to former Houston colleague Capt. Jim Dale, joined the Santa Fe Independent School District police force because he wanted a less-stressful job.

Barnes was shot in both arms, Dale said. A second Santa Fe ISD officer arrived, pulled Barnes to safety and applied a tourniquet. A third officer, a state trooper, also engaged the gunman, according to a state police official. N

Officials have not yet provided a timeline showing how long it took to respond to the active-shooter emergency calls.