Teen yelled ‘surprise’ before shooting
SANTA FE: Evan San Miguel, a freshman at Santa Fe High School, said he was in his art class early on Friday when a fellow student burst in and yelled “Surprise!”
Then, the shooting started.
“It was terrifying, terrifying,” Evan recalled hours later.
“I didn’t even know if I was going to make it home or not.”
The 15-year-old was among hundreds of students, distraught parents, residents, grief counsellors and politicians, who gathered for a sunset vigil in this tight-knit community near Houston that became the scene of the latest United States school massacre.
Just hours after a teen gunman killed 10 people, mostly fellow classmates, and wounded 10 others, they came together near the school to light candles, pray for strength, and weep for their fallen friends.
Evan and friends were startled when fellow student Dimitrios Pagourtzis burst into the class.
“When he opened the door to shoot Kyle, he was like, ‘Surprise!’ And then, he shot him in the chest,” said Evan, who described how a bullet grazed his left shoulder.
His knee, cut by broken glass, was also bandaged.
When the shooter left their classroom, Evan and other survivors barricaded the door and waited for police.
Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old 11th grader at the school, is being held on capital murder charges.
At the vigil, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and US Senator Ted Cruz hugged grieving families, comfort dogs sat with students, and ministers offered prayers.
Sophomore Bailee Sobnosky was at the back of the school when she heard the gunshots. Having experienced a school lockdown just three months earlier, she said she wasted no time running across the street to a nearby petrol station.
“I still don’t feel safe,” the 16year-old said after the vigil, acknowledging she was likely in shock from the tragedy.
Sobnosky said she did not know the shooter, but had seen him around school.
“He seemed like a nice kid,” she said, although she believed he did not have many friends.
Deep into early hours yesterday, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were seen inspecting a blue trailer home believed to be connected to the suspect.
Outside the school, still partially lit up at night, a cordon of yellow police tape warned off anyone who approached the buildings. Two young women came to lay a bouquet of flowers nearby.
Kali Causey, 20, a graduate from nearby Clear Falls High School who came with a friend to pay their respects, said it was unfathomable that their community had become the next on a long and tragic list.
“They always used to talk about Columbine and how horrific that was. Sandy Hook,” she said, referring to two of the deadliest US school shootings of recent years.
“But this is here, in your home town,” she paused. “It hits close.”
Causey dismissed the accusations that America’s gun culture — prevalent in Texas to be sure — led to the killings.
“A lot of people just blame that, but it’s a bigger picture,” she said, pointing to issues like bullying and mental health conditions.
For a community plunged into grief, Causey said the most important thing she could do now was to just be there for the families in need.