Gunman, 17, yelled ‘Surprise!’ then shot dead nine classmates
Teen’s rampage is 22nd US school massacre this year
A HEAVILY armed teenage student killed ten people including nine fellow pupils yesterday during a school shooting rampage in Texas.
Witnesses said the 17-year-old gunman began his attack at Santa Fe High School shortly after 7.30am, when he burst into an art class shouting ‘Surprise!’ before opening fire with a shotgun.
Others were shot as they fled classrooms after a fire alarm was set off.
The gunman tried to cause more bloodshed by leaving pipe bombs and pressure cooker explosive devices inside and outside the school.
One of the dead was a teacher and at least a dozen others were hurt, including two police officers – one of whom was critically injured.
The gunman, who attended the school, was reportedly captured unharmed. He was later identified as 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis.
Another student was also arrested and was being questioned.
Officials said the attacker was armed with an AR15-style assault rifle, a pistol, a shotgun and pipe bombs.
Police said that possible explosive devices were being examined by specialist officers.
It was the 22nd school shooting in the US this year. The outrage at the town – 30 miles south of Houston – was America’s deadliest school shooting since an attack in Parkland, Florida, in February left 17 dead and sparked a new campaign to reform America’s gun laws.
Donald Trump, who has rejected calls to curb firearm sales, called it an ‘absolutely horrific attack’.
He said: ‘This has been going on too long in our country – too many years, too many decades now.’
First Lady Melania Trump tweeted that her ‘heart goes out to Santa Fe and all of Texas today’.
The gunman struck as students were sitting down for their first class of the day.
The school had been preparing for a ‘cap and gown’ ceremony today to celebrate students passing their final exams.
Trey Lemley, 17, was in the school’s ground floor art room when the shooter walked in.
He told his family he barricaded himself inside one of the room’s two cupboards. When he left, he saw three bodies and pools of blood.
Liberty Wheeler, 14, was in class when she heard five shots ring out near the art room.
Her teacher told students to run towards a storage room, where they hid for 45 minutes before being escorted outside by a police SWAT team. She said: ‘You could smell the gunpowder that came from the gun. We were all scared.’
Lines of students were seen leaving the building as heavily armed police rushed inside. An official told the Houston Chronicle police ‘encountered a bloody mess in the school’.
Student Dakota Shrader heard alarms go off and classmates went outside on to the grass, waiting for an all-clear as in a normal fire drill. Then she heard three gunshots and screams of ‘Run! Run!’.
She said: ‘The world, I just don’t like what it’s becoming. Every school shooting, kids getting killed, innocent kids getting killed.
‘No family should have to suffer that just because somebody wants to be selfish and go out and hurt other people. It’s just not right.’
Under Texas firearms laws, people can buy handguns at 21 but only need to be 18 to purchase a shotgun or rifle.
The shooting will reignite the debate over America’s gun regulations.
After the Feburary 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, survivors petitioned lawmakers and held protests demanding tighter gun control.
In late March, they organised one of the largest student protest rallies in Washington since Vietnam.
‘Police found a bloody mess’