May 20, 2018 10:31 AM
The suspect (Dmitrios Pagourtzes) started by shooting through the art classroom door at Santa Fe High School .Breaking a glass pane an making the panicked students go to the entryway preventing him from getting inside some eye witnesses said.
He shoot again through the door this time hitting a student fatally in the chest,he lingered for some minutes in the warren of four rooms,whereby killing seven more students and two teachers before exchanging gunfire with the police before he surrendered,officials said.
A freshman student by name Abel San Miguel witness his friend shot to death while he sustained a gunshot graze on his left shoulder.He said him and others survived because they played dead. "We were on the ground, all piled up in random positions," he said.
The county's chief administrator,Galveston County Judge Mark Henry,said he did not think the incident that friday was 30 minutes of constant shooting.
Authorities did not give full detail timeline of how it all happened.
Junior Breanna Quintanilla said she was in the art room when she heard the gunshots and someone say "If you all move, I'm going to shoot you all." Then the 17-year-old Pagourtzis walked in,pointing at one person he said, "I'm going to kill you." Then he fired. Then he said if anyone moved he will shoot.
But when Quintanilla tried to run,she noticed he was pointing at her direction. Then he shot at her but missed then shot again and hit the right leg. Which was treated.
Quintanilla expressed her worries and fear.The statement given by the Pagourtzis family on saturday,said the event "seems incompatible with the boy we love."
"We are as shocked and confused as anyone else by these events," said the statement, and shared their condolences with e affected victims.
Pagourtzis' attorney, Nicholas Poehl, said he's doing some investigations to know if there's was any "teacher-on-student" bullying because the clients report showed that he was being mistreated by his football coaches.
In an online statement,the school district said the accusations were false." Poehl said that there was no history of mental health issues with his client, though there may be "some indications of family history."
The mother of Quintanilla said she was targeted because she rejected advances from him who was the former boyfriend of Qunitanilla's best friend.
Sadie Rodriguez said her 16-year-old daughter, Shana Fisher,constantly rejected him but he became more aggressive each time." The week before the shooting, Fisher "stood up to him" by embarrassing him in class, Rodriguez said.
The Houston branch of the FBI tweeted on Saturday that 13 people were wounded not 10 and the hospital said 14 gunshot related injuries are being treated. Discrepancy in result is still not clear.
In addition to a shotgun and a handgun, Pagourtzis also had several kinds of homemade explosive devices, but they were not capable of detonating, Henry said
With further investigations,a cluster of carbon dioxide canisters taped together, and a pressure cooker with an alarm clock and nails inside were found The pressure cooker had no explosive material, and the canisters had no detonation device.
"They were intended to look like IEDs, but they were totally non-functional," Henry said.
