SANTA FE: Texas officials charged a 17-year-old student with murder in theshooting of 10 people, including fellow pupils, at his high school onFriday in an attack similar to the massacre at a Florida high schoolearlier this year.
Students said a gunman — later identified by law enforcement as DimitriosPagourtzis — opened fire in a classroom at Santa Fe High School shortlybefore 8 AM CT (1300 GMT) on Friday, and that they fled in panic afterseeing classmates wounded and a fire alarm triggered a full evacuation.
Ten people were hurt in the attack, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said.
Among those killed was Sabika Sheikh, a Pakistan exchange student studyingin the US facilitated by the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES)programme.
In a letter sent to the YES programme students, Megan Lysaght, the programmanager (Inbound) at American Councils for International Education, wrote:”It is with [the] greatest sadness in my heart that I need to inform youthat one of our YES students, Sabika Sheikh of Pakistan, was killed todayin the school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas.
“Please know that the YES program is devastated by this loss and we willremember Sabika and her families in our thoughts and prayers. We will havea moment of silence in her memory today.”
Lysaght also informed other YES programme students that help and emotionalsupport were available through coordinators and host families, as well as”Religious Advisors”.
The shooting was the latest in a long series of deadly ones at US schools.Seventeen teens and educators were shot dead at a Parkland, Florida, highschool in February, a massacre that stirred the nation’s long-runningdebate over gun ownership.
The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office identified Pagourtzis and said he hadbeen charged with capital murder in a post on its Facebook page. Morecharges could follow.
Speaking to reporters before the teen was identified, Abbott told reportersthat the suspect had used a shotgun and a .38 revolver taken from hisfather in the fourth-deadliest mass shooting at a US public school.
“Not only did he want to commit the shooting, but he wanted to commitsuicide after the shooting,” Abbott said, citing a police review of thesuspect’s journals. “He didn’t have the courage to commit suicide.”
Two other people are in custody, Abbott said.
Investigators are talking to the suspect, Steven McCraw, director of theTexas Department of Public Safety, said.
Abbott said that investigators had seen a T-shirt on the suspect’s Facebookpage that read “Born to Kill.”
Explosive devices had also been found at the school, located about 30 miles(48 km) southeast of Houston, and off campus, Harris County Sheriff EdGonzalez tweeted.
Police were searching two homes and a vehicle linked to the suspect, wherethey have found multiple homemade explosive devices, Abbott said.‘The guy behind me was dead’
Courtney Marshall, a 15-year-old freshman at the school, said the gunmancame into her art class shooting.
“I wanted to take care of my friends, but I knew I had to get out ofthere,” Marshall said, saying that she saw at least one person hit. “I knewthe guy behind me was dead.”
Orlando Gonzalez said that his 16-year-old son Keaton, fled the attack, butone of his friends was shot and wounded.
“I was really worried, I didn’t know what was going on … I almostcouldn’t drive,” Gonzalez said. “I just imagine what he’s going through …He’s still scared.”
The school has some 1,462 students, according to federal education data.
US President Donald Trump called the latest school massacre “absolutelyhorrific.”
“My administration is determined to do everything in our power to protectour students, secure our schools and to keep weapons out of the hands ofthose who pose a threat to themselves and to others,” Trump said at theWhite House.
Days after the Parkland shooting, Trump said that elected officials shouldbe ready to “fight” the powerful National Rifle Association lobby group.Early this month he embraced that group, telling its annual meeting inDallas “your Second Amendment rights are under siege.”
The Second Amendment of the US Constitution protects the right to bear arms.
No major federal gun controls have been imposed since Parkland, though theadministration is pursuing a proposed regulatory ban on “bump stocks,”which enable a semi-automatic rifle to fire a steady stream of bullets.
The devices were used in an October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas thatkilled 59 people but have not played a role in other major US massshootings. – APP/AFP