Residents attend a prayer vigil to remember the victims from the Santa Fe High School shooting.On Friday, a 17-year-old student armed with a shotgun and a pistol stormed Santa Fe High School in the US state of Texas, and opened fire in an art class, officials said.
The gunman killed 10 people and wounded 13 others, including a school resource officer who was left in critical condition, police said, before surrendering to the officers who confronted him.
The police have arrested Dimitrios Pagourtzis Jr as a suspect, and have charged him with murder.
Of those killed, eight were students and two were teachers. Officials identified those killed as teachers Glenda Perkins and Cynthia Tisdale, and students Jared Black, Shana Fisher, Christian Riley Garcia, Aaron Kyle McLeod, Angelique Ramirez, Sabika Sheikh, Christopher Jake Stone and Kimberly Vaughan.
Police said Pagourtzis gave a statement admitting responsibility for the shooting, according to a affidavit filed in court. They said that Pagourtzis told police that he went into the school wearing a trench coat and wielding two guns, intent on killing people.
The affidavit states that the 17-year-old told police that “he did not shoot students he did like so he could have his story told”.
The two guns used in the shooting belong to Pagourtzis’ father, according to Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, who said it was unclear if the father knew his son had taken them. Police said they also found explosive devices inside the school and at locations off campus.
Santa Fe High School became the latest scene of carnage in what has become a national epidemic of mass shootings. For the second time in the past three months, the victims were children and their teachers.
The tragedy prompted an outpouring of grief and outrage - a candlelight vigil, statements of sympathy and anger from elected officials, and heart-rending posts from relatives of the deceased.
This was the 16th school shooting so far this year, according to a Washington Post analysis. That’s the highest number at this point in any year since 1999, the year of the Columbine High School massacre.
The Post’s analysis found that since 1999, shootings during school hours have killed at least 141 children, educators and other people, with another 284 injured.