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Shooter’s family wants answers

IT’S the deadliest school attack since the Parkland shooting. Now the parents of shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis have spoken.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, is the suspect in the deadly school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, near Houston. (Galveston County Sheriff's Office via AP)Source:AP

Dimitrios Pagourtzis, is the suspect in the deadly school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, near Houston. (Galveston County Sheriff's Office via AP)Source:AP

THE FAMILY of the 17-year-old student who opened fire on his Texas high school, killing 10 people and wounding 13 others, says what happened “seems incompatible with the boy we love.”

Dimitrios Pagourtzis’s family said in a statement Saturday: “We are as shocked and confused as anyone else by these events that occurred” while offering prayers and condolences to the victims.

The family said they remained “mostly in the dark about the specifics of yesterday’s tragedy” but “what we have learned from media reports seems incompatible with the boy we love.”

“We share the public’s hunger for answers as to why this happened, and will await the outcome of the investigation before speaking about these events,” their statement read.

Pagourtzis is being held on capital murder charges. Investigators say he admitted “shooting multiple people.”

Authorities have released the names of the 10 people who were killed in the mass shooting at the Texas high school.

The Galveston County medical examiner’s office and sheriff’s office issued a statement Saturday listing those killed as: Glenda Perkins; Cynthia Tisdale; Kimberly Vaughan; Shana Fisher; Angelique Ramirez; Christian Riley Garcia; Jared Black; Sabika Sheikh; Christopher Jake Stone; and Aaron Kyle McLeod. Perkins and Tisdale were teachers. The others were students at Santa Fe High School.

Authorities say the 17-year-old student, Dimitrios Pagourtzis also injured at least 13 others. He faces murder charges for the 10 killed.

The FBI’s Houston office tweeted the updated injured count on Saturday. The high school in Santa Fe, is about 50km southeast of Houston.

The updated FBI number still doesn’t fully explain the discrepancy with the number of wounded reported by hospitals.

Area hospitals reported Friday that they had treated 14 people for injuries related to the shooting. But it’s not clear whether all of those weren’t directly related to the attack.

A Colorado man says his nephew was among the 10 people who were killed in the mass shooting.

Robert Stone told The Associated Press by phone Saturday that authorities officially notified his family that his nephew, Chris Stone, was among those killed in Friday’s attack at Santa Fe High School. He says he’s driving from Colorado to Santa Fe, about 30 miles southeast of Houston, to be with his family. He declined to comment further, saying his family wants to maintain its privacy.

Freshman student Abel San Miguel told the AP that Chris Stone was one of the students who tried to block the door to an art classroom to prevent the shooter from entering. San Miguel, who was in the classroom, said the attacker fired his shotgun through the door, hitting Stone in the chest.

The Santa Fe High School where 17-year-old student Dimitrios Pagourtzis entered the school with a shotgun and a pistol and opened fire, killing 10 people. Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP
The Santa Fe High School where 17-year-old student Dimitrios Pagourtzis entered the school with a shotgun and a pistol and opened fire, killing 10 people. Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP

Students were on Saturday being allowed back inside the building to get car keys and other belongings they left behind.

Walter Braun, the school district’s chief of police, said at a news conference Saturday that the students will be allowed inside Santa Fe High School in groups of no more than 10 and would be accompanied by officers. He said about 50 students had been admitted as of Saturday afternoon and that others would be allowed in for about three more hours.

Braun and other officials declined to answer questions about the investigation into Friday’s shooting, deferring to the FBI, which has taken the lead. Authorities say the

school police officer who was shot and wounded. Braun says the officer remains in critical condition.

A Texas official says explosive devices found with the suspected gunman weren’t capable of detonating.

Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said Saturday that authorities found a group of carbon dioxide canisters taped together, and a pressure cooker with an alarm clock and nails inside. But he says the canisters had no detonation device and the pressure cooker had no explosive material.

Judge Henry also says police exchanged “a lot of firepower” with 17-year-old before the student surrendered. The shooting took place in an art room Friday morning on the roughly 1,400-student campus.

Pakistani businessman Abdul Aziz Sheikh said he learnt of the tragedy unfolding at a high school in Texas when he turned on the TV after iftar, the fast- breaking meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Realising it was the school where his 18-year-old daughter, Sabika, was an exchange student, he flipped through channels trying to learn more and left her messages, but she didn’t reply.

He called his daughter’s friends, but they weren’t responding either. It was only when he reached the exchange program that he got the bad news: Sabika Khan was among the 10 people killed in Friday’s mass shooting at Santa Fe High School, southeast of Houston.

Fighting back tears, her father told The Associated Press on Saturday in Karachi that Sabika was due home in about three weeks for the holiday marking the end of Ramadan. He said he thought she would be safe in the US.

Abdul Aziz Sheikh, father of Sabika Sheikh, was half way across the world in Pakistan, where he struggled to find out that his daughter was among the dead. He was eventually told by the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study Abroad program. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Abdul Aziz Sheikh, father of Sabika Sheikh, was half way across the world in Pakistan, where he struggled to find out that his daughter was among the dead. He was eventually told by the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study Abroad program. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)Source:AP

The head of the US House Homeland Security Committee said the teenager suspected of killing 10 people and wounding others at a Texas high school collapsed while giving himself up, avoiding a police confrontation.

Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, a former federal prosecutor, says 17-year- old Dimitrios Pagourtzis “sort of fell to the ground and surrendered”.

Mr McCaul said late Friday that Pagourtzis wore a trench coat despite the sweltering temperatures earlier that day “to hide the shotgun and .38-caliber underneath” during the attack at Santa Fe High School near Houston. He says authorities recovered a couple of explosive devices at the school and “several” in Pagourtzis’ vehicle and home, and that they’ve been sent for testing to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.

Tributes were laid at a vigil in Santa Fe, Texas for the victims of the mass shooting. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the 17-year-old shooter, is being held on capital murder charges, meaning he could face the death penalty. / AFP PHOTO
Tributes were laid at a vigil in Santa Fe, Texas for the victims of the mass shooting. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the 17-year-old shooter, is being held on capital murder charges, meaning he could face the death penalty. / AFP PHOTOSource:AFP

The shooting was the deadliest school attack since 17 were killed in February at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Pagourtzis told investigators that when he opened fire at Santa Fe High School on Friday morning, “he did not shoot students he did like so he could have his story told.” Authorities have not offered any motive. Pagourtzis is being held without bond at the Galveston County Jail.

Source: News Corp Australia Network:

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