The teenager who allegedly used a shotgun and a revolver to kill 10 people and wound 10 others at a Texas high school yesterday admitted he didn’t shoot people he liked and meant to kill the ones he did target, a probable cause affidavit says.
Suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, has cooperated with police, said Galveston County Magistrate Mark Henry said. Henry denied bail for the student, who is accused of capital murder of multiple people and aggravated assault on a public servant. Students at Santa Fe High School, not far from Houston in southeastern Texas, scrambled for safety after they heard shots just after class began Friday morning. Nine students and one teacher were killed, a law enforcement official told CNN. Pagourtzis said little during a video court appearance, answering “Yes, sir” when asked whether he wanted a court-appointed attorney. He was not asked to enter a plea.
Early morning attack
Gunfire erupted at the school, about 20 miles outside Galveston, not long after classes began around 7:30 a.m. CT, officials said. Authorities later found explosive devices — including pipe bombs and pressure cookers — in and near the school, a law enforcement official said. Henry told reporters that the suspect had devices but none was functional. One was a pressure cooker with an alarm clock and nails, but no explosive material. There was also an unlit Molotov cocktail found, he said.
Santa Fe High School junior Guadalupe Sanchez, 16, cries in the arms of her mother, Elida Sanchez, after reuniting with her at a meeting point at a nearby fitness center after Friday’s shooting. Because the devices were found, Braun urged people in the city of about 13,000 people to “not touch any items that look out of place, and call 911” if they see something suspicious. Investigators Friday afternoon were searching a trailer where they believe the devices were assembled, a law enforcement source said.
Witness: Shooter fired gun in an art class
Daymon Rabon was in class when he heard a loud bang next door. “We thought maybe someone was banging on the shop door or maybe something fell,” the senior said. Rabon said he followed his teacher, who went to investigate. They heard three more bangs and saw the shooter come out off of an art room. “At this point we knew this was … really happening to us,” Rabon said. They went back into their classroom and told others to help barricade the door.
Rabon said he heard someone shooting back and they gave them some hope, but the shooting seemed right outside their door.
Victims were being treated at three hospitals, authorities said. Eight people went to Clear Lake Regional Medical in Webster, Texas; two patients were treated at Mainland Medical Center in Texas City; and four patients went to John Sealy University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. It is unclear whether they were all wounded or some were treated for other injuries.
Police officers work a checkpoint in front of Santa Fe High School in response to the shooting. Another student, Dakota Shrader, told CNN affiliate KPRC that she heard gunshots only after hearing an alarm in the school.
“I was in the history hallway, and as soon as we heard the alarms, everybody just started leaving following the same procedure as … (a) practice fire drill,” Shrader said, breaking into tears. “And next thing you know, we just hear … three gunshots, loud explosions, and all the teachers are telling us to run.”
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