A substitute teacher and a foreign exchange student from Pakistan are among the first confirmed victims of Friday’s mass shooting at a Texas high school. Among those injured are a school resource officer and a sophomore baseball player.
The shooter, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis was being held on a capital murder charge after authorities said he fatally shot 10 people and wounded at least 10 others at his high school in Santa Fe, about 50 km southeast of Houston.
10 killed
Family members confirmed that substitute teacher Cynthia Tisdale was among the 10 victims killed. Megan Lysaght, manager of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study Abroad programme, sent a letter to students in the programme confirming that Sabika Sheikh, a Pakistani student was killed. The Pakistan Association of Greater Houston said on Facebook that Ms. Sheikh was due to go back home to Pakistan for Id ul-Fitr.
It was the fourth-deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. public school in modern history, and again stoked the nation’s long-running debate over gun ownership three months after 17 teens and educators were fatally shot in Parkland, Florida.
Classmates at the school of some 1,460 students described Pagourtzis as a quiet loner who played on the football team. On Friday, they said he wore a trench coat to the school.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Pagourtzis obtained firearms from his father, who had likely acquired them legally, and also left behind explosive devices. Mr. Abbott told reporters that Pagourtzis wanted to commit suicide, citing the suspect’s journals, but did not have the courage to do so. He said investigators had seen a T-shirt on the suspect’s Facebook page that read “Born to Kill”, and authorities were examining his journal. But there were no outward signs he had been planning an attack, he said.
However, Mr. Abbott, a Republican, focussed on the need to better address mental health issues and to arm school personnel, rather than calling for limits on the proliferation of legal weapons.
Texas has among the most permissive firearm laws in the United States. Any buyer as young as 18 can buy a firearm in Texas without a special permit, including for semi-automatic, rapid-fire weapons with large-capacity magazines.
It’s also legal to openly carry a shotgun or rifle, except where it is expressly forbidden.
But the State’s gun culture has a price. Since January 2009, Texas has seen at least 20 shootings with four or more people killed — gunman not included — according to the group Everytown for Gun Safety. That’s a national record.
