Officers ‘did what they could’ in Texas
SANTA FE: Two officers “did what they could” when a teenager opened fire and killed 10 inside a Texas school, their chief said on Saturday, tight-lipped about a probe into the latest US mass shooting.
Friday’s massacre in the rural community of Santa Fe wounded 13 more, including one of the school’s policemen who is in critical condition.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student at the same Santa Fe High School, is being held on two charges: aggravated assault to a public servant and capital murder, which means he could face the death penalty.
The FBI raised the number of wounded to 13, from 10 earlier.
Walter Braun, chief of the Sante Fe Independent School District police, told reporters that one of his officers was in a critical but stable condition.
He and another officer had “engaged” the shooter, Mr Braun said.
“We drill all of the time with the students and staff and they’re prepared to go into action. That was reflected by the two officers that engaged him right away,” Mr Braun said, declining to give further details.
“Our officers went in there and did what they could.”
Mr Braun refused to discuss any investigative matters, such as how many rounds his officers may have fired, deferring to the FBI and Texas Rangers, a statewide law enforcement agency. The two agencies are leading the probe.
Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, who found “probable cause” to deny bond for the suspect on Friday, told reporters that the wounded school officer “ran toward danger ... He’s a hero in my book”.
Mr Henry noted that the suspect “said in his statement he acted alone”.
The gunman apparently carried out the attack with a shotgun and a .38 revolver that were legally owned by his father, according to Governor Greg Abbott.
The school remained sealed by police tape and an official said all campuses in the district will be closed both today and tomorrow.
The New York Times cited an affidavit written by one investigator as saying the suspect had confessed and said he spared “students he did like so he could have his story told”.
US media have identified all 10 victims, who included two teachers and an exchange student from Pakistan.
JJ Watt, a defensive end with the National Football League’s Houston Texans, has told authorities he will pay the funeral expenses of those killed, NFL officials confirmed.
Calls for gun reform are unlikely to resonate in the gun rights bastion of Texas after the Santa Fe murders, as they did after a school massacre in Florida three months ago.
In response to the Florida killings, President Donald Trump’s administration said it would step up aid to states that want to arm school employees, a move that has little support from educators.
Meanwhile, Santa Fe High School athletes took the field on Saturday to partake in a long-standing and, for at least one evening, healing Texas pastime: baseball.
The setting spring sun cast a golden glow as umpires dusted red dirt off the home plate and the crowd settled in the bleachers, all in preparation for a game that until Friday’s killings was never expected to attract much attention.
When the announcer introduced the Santa Fe Indians — whose pitcher was shot in the back of the head by the gunman, miraculously survived and joined his team for the opening line-up — the crowd of about 1,000 erupted in cheers.