Teen gunman lobbed pipe bombs, left ‘bloody mess’ at school near Houston – By Claire Ballor & Lauren McGaughy (dallasnews.com) / May 18 2018
A 17-year-old gunman armed to the teeth and wearing a trench coat shot several classmates and lobbed pipe bombs Friday morning on his deadly march through a high school outside Houston.
At least 10 people at Santa Fe High School, most of them students, were killed and 10 others were wounded, including a school police officer in critical condition, officials said.
Gov. Greg Abbott said the school shooting — the nation’s deadliest since 17 people were killed Feb. 14 in Parkland, Fla. — was the “worst disaster to ever strike this community.”
“We need to do more than just pray for the victims and their families,” Abbott said as he called for laws protecting people and the Second Amendment. “It’s time in Texas … to make sure this tragedy is never repeated.”
The suspect, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, was booked into the Galveston County Jail on capital murder charges. He was being held without bail.
Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said that Pagourtzis told police he acted alone, according to the Houston Chronicle. Pagourtzis is being held in solitary confinement.
He was armed with multiple guns and pipe bombs, a law enforcement official told the newspaper.
“Officers inside encountered a bloody mess in the school,” the source said. “Evidently this guy threw pipe bombs all in there. We don’t know if any of them went off.”
The governor said the suspect was carrying a shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver — both of which belonged to his father.
“If you’re a parent and you own guns, lock your guns safely away,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said.
Both students and faculty members were among the casualties, Gonzales said. A Santa Fe ISD officer among the injured was listed in critical condition.
“We experienced an unthinkable tragedy at our high school this morning,” Superintendent Leigh Wall said in a written statement. “We are grieving the loss of members of our SFISD family.”
#UPDATE There have been explosive devices found in the high school and surrounding areas adjacent to the high school. Because of the threat of explosive items, community members should be on the look-out for suspicious packages and anything that looks out of place.
— Santa Fe ISD (@SantaFeISD) May 18, 2018
Do not touch any items out of place and call 911 as we have agencies that can respond. Our thoughts and prayers are with our students, staff and our community. Please pray for our Santa Fe ISD community. #SantaFeISD
— Santa Fe ISD (@SantaFeISD) May 18, 2018
Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old junior at the school, was not popular among his classmates and was often the target of bullying, students said.
A Facebook profile removed shortly after the shooting showed images of a black T-shirt with the words “Born to Kill,” as well as a trench coat similar to what witnesses said the shooter wore during the attack.
A caption on his Instagram page said “we all die sometime,” according to the Chronicle.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the newspaper, Pagourtzis told police he did not shoot students he liked, “so he could have his story told.”
In addition to the suspect, a second person of interest was questioned, the sheriff said. Both people in custody are students, he added.
The school was evacuated after explosives were found in and around campus. The district said similar devices — among them pipe bombs and a pressure cooker — were also found off campus. Abbott said the devices were assembled by the shooter.
A bomb squad was dispatched to a home about four miles from campus, KTRK-TV (ABC 13) reported.
At one point, officers could be seen running away from the home, and police tape cordoned off the neighborhood along State Highway 6 near Westwood Drive.
#BREAKING: Harris County Sheriff confirms 8-10 people killed in shooting at #SantaFe High School in #Texas; Suspect in custody, 2nd person detained #LiveDesk pic.twitter.com/98x1Dbno8a
— Dan Snyder (@DanSnyderTV) May 18, 2018
The victims were sent to various hospitals in Galveston County.
A spokesman at the University of Texas Medical Branch said doctors there are treating three victims, according to CBS affiliate KHOU-TV.
The spokesman said a Santa Fe ISD officer was in surgery. A 16-year-old boy and a middle-age woman were shot in the legs and expected to recover.
Clear Lake Regional Medical Center has received seven victims and Mainland Medical Center has received two, according to NBC News.
The Chronicle identified the wounded school officer as John Barnes, a 23-year Houston Police Department veteran. Surgeons restarted his heart twice and stemmed bleeding from a severe elbow wound, the newspaper reported.
Police were called to the school after shots were fired shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, two weeks before the end of the school year. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also responded to the scene.
Senior Daisy Sullivan, 17, said she was in English class when she heard loud popping sounds, like the sound of falling trash lids. “No way it’s gun shots,” she thought to herself.
Even as school alarms sounded, she figured the lights and sounds were a drill, just like those she’d rehearsed for years. Then she saw a history teacher, a retired Marine, moving down the hallway and telling students to run.
Student Logan Roberds said he heard a fire alarm and went outside, and then he heard two loud bangs. At first he thought someone hit a trash can, but three more bangs made him think twice.
“That’s when the teachers told us to run,” he said.
Roberds, 18, ran with other students to a nearby gas station. His mother says she quickly drove to meet her son.
Another student, 17-year-old Dustin Severin, told NBC affiliate KPRC-TV that he saw the suspect shortly before the shooting began, wearing his signature trench coat.
“He wears a trench coat every day,” Severin said, “and it’s like 90 degrees out here.”
Bullies — and not just students — often targeted Pagourtzis, Severin told the station.
“He’s been picked on by coaches before, for smelling bad and stuff like that,” the teen told the station. “And he doesn’t really talk to very many people either. He keeps to himself.”
Student Leila Butler told KTRK-TVthat fire alarms went off around 7:45 a.m. and that students exited their classrooms. She said some students heard gunshots and that she and her classmates and teachers were sheltering in place.
Some students were directed to exit the school and were patted down by officers, according to live footage from the station.
Sullivan, the senior, said she had accounted for all of her friends but one, her boyfriend’s best friend. Calls to his phone kept going to voicemail.
“With everything that’s happened this year, I just want to graduate,” she said. “I really hope it’s over.”
A vigil for the victims was held outside a Santa Fe bank Friday evening, Houston’s KPRC-TV reported, while the Houston Astros held a moment of silence before its game at Minute Maid Park.
Speaking at a prison reform summit, President Donald Trump expressed his “sadness and heartbreak” over the shooting, promising to take action to protect students.
“This has been going on too long in our country. Too many years. Too many decades now,” he said. “My administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools and to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others. Everyone must work together at every level of government to keep our children safe.”
Since 2005, Texas has required public schools and community colleges to have emergency plans that include responding to both human and natural disaster threats.
School employees must be trained in responses and schools must have related safety drills. A safety audit must be done at least every three years and be submitted to the Texas School Safety Center. The latest three-year cycle for schools started in September 2017.
