Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, who shot and killed eight students and two teachers in Texas, had been spurned by one of his victims after making aggressive advances, her mother told the Los Angeles Times .
Sadie Rodriguez, the mother of Shana Fisher, 16, told the newspaper that her daughter rejected four months of aggressive advances from Pagourtzis at the Santa Fe high school.
Ms. Fisher finally stood up to him and embarrassed him in class, the newspaper quoted her mother as writing in a private message to The Times . “A week later he opens fire on everyone he didn’t like,” she said. “Shana being the first one.” Ms. Rodriguez could not independently be reached for comment. If true, it would be the second school shooting in recent months driven by such rejection.
In March, a 17-year-old Maryland high school student used his father’s gun to shoot and seriously wound a student with whom he had been in a recently ended relationship, police said.
No motive found
As the investigation entered its third day on Sunday, no official motive has been announced for the massacre, the fourth-deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. public school in modern history.
Classmates at Santa Fe High School, with some 1,460 students, described the accused shooter, as a quiet loner, who played on the school’s football team.
Multiple news accounts depicted him as taunting his victims as he fired, focusing mostly on the arts class room where Ms. Fisher was.
Pagourtzis’s family said in a statement they were “saddened and dismayed” by the shooting and “as shocked as anyone else” by the events. They said they are cooperating with authorities.
All schools in Santa Fe will be closed Monday and Tuesday, officials said.
