Santa Fe High School Shooting, May 18, 2018

 

Attack: May 18, 2018, Santa Fe High School shooting

Location: Santa Fe, Texas

Attacker: Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17

Victims: 10 dead (8 students, 2 teachers), 13 injured
Weapon(s): Shotgun and .38 caliber pistol

Type of attacker: Hate/Bias (potential revenge)

 

Description:

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On Friday, May 18, 2018, 17-yr-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a student at Santa Fe High School, entered the school early in the morning. He was concealing a sawed-off shotgun and a .38 caliber revolver under a trench coat. The guns were owned by his father. After entering the school, he quickly entered an art room, reportedly yelled, “surprise,” and began shooting and targeting others. During the shootings, he taunted, cursed, and selected targets saying later that he did not want to shoot students he liked so that they could tell his story. He was apprehended after killing 8 students, 2 teachers, and wounding at least 13 others. Motivation appears to be hate/bias against those who “bullied” him.

Pagourtzis does not fit the typical profile. First, instead of typical semi-automatic weapons, he brandished a sawed-off shotgun and a .38 caliber revolver. He was known as typically quiet and had participated in sports and traditional Greek dance class. After he was apprehended he stated that he wanted to kill himself but did not have the courage. Although warning signs were present, they were much more subtle that the sign present for those perpetrating similar mass victim attacks.

Two armed officers were on campus but were unable to stop the attack. Crude explosive devices were also located on the campus. After the attack, it has surfaced that Pagourtzis had written in a journal that he wanted to carry out such an attack and that he wanted to commit suicide. The Father, although owning the weapons used, has indicated that he did not know his son had the weapons or that he was capable of violence.

 

Links:

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Emily Shapiro and Tonya Kerr, The chilling words Santa Fe shooting suspect repeated  amid the carnage, ABC News, May 21, 2018. https://abcnews.go.com/US/alleged-santa-fe-hs-gunman-repeated-bites-dust/story?id=55320645

 

Brittney Martin, Mark Berman, Joel Achenbach and Amy B Wang, ‘Overwhelming grief’: 8 students, 2 teachers killed in Texas high school shooting, The Washington Post, May 20, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/05/19/ten-killed-in-texas-high-school-shooting-were-mostly-students-police-say-suspect-confessed/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ef568aefb6c7

 

Manny Fernandez, Richard Fausset, and Jess Bidgood, In Texas School Shooting, 10 Dead, 10 Hurt and Many Unsurprised, New York Times, May 18, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/us/school-shooting-santa-fe-texas.html

 

Jay Syrmopoulos, Details Emerge Surrounding Santa Fe High School Shooting; Suspect Appears In Court, Truth in Media, May 20, 2018. http://truthinmedia.com/details-santa-fe-high-school-shooting/