A quiet high school student whose only ostensible "oddity" was the trechcoat he wore to school every day has been arrested for killing 10 people and injuring 10 others in a shooting Friday morning at a high school in the southeastern Texas city of Santa Fe, some 20 miles outside of Galveston.
At first glance, the Texas shooting looked like a carbon copy of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 14 students and three teachers were gunned down. But several elements of this shooting and the circumstancs around it were unlike those in Parkland last Valentine's Day.
Gunfire erupted in a first-period art class at the school at around 7:30 a.m. Friday, officials said. Authorities later found explosive devices -- including pipe bombs and pressure cookers -- in and near the school, the law enforcement officials said.
Two people have been detained in the shooting at Santa Fe High School. The suspected shooter has been identified as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17. Pagourtzis was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement personnel; his injuries are not life-threatening. The second student arrested is 18, not suspected of weilding a gun but police have called him "an accomplice."
Pagourtzis had no record of causing trouble, either at school or in the small city of Santa Fe.
He did not purchase the shotgun and .38-caliber revolver used, said police. The weapons belong to Pagourtzis' father, who owns them legally.
Pagourtzis has been booked into the Galveston County Jail and is being held on capital murder charges with no bond. Additional charges may follow, according to the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.
By late afternoon Texas authorities still had not released the names of the dead, identified only as nine students and one teacher.
Two law enforcement officers are among the injured. One man, the school resource officer, is in critical condition with a gunshot wound in one of his arms, said David Marshall, chief nursing officer for University of Texas Medical Branch hospital. The other officer's wound is not from a gunshot.
The Santa Fe incident is the 22nd U.S. school shooting since the beginning of the year, and the third time in eight days in which a gunman was on a school campus.
Witnesses described students running from the school as they heard gunshots; they also described hearing an alarm at the school, though the sequence of events wasn't immediately clear.
Authorities found explosive devices in the high school and in adjacent areas, said Walter Braun, Santa Fe Independent School District police chief. It wasn't immediately clear if any had exploded.
Because the devices were found, Braun urged people in the city of about 13,000 to "not touch any items that look out of place, and call 911" if they see something suspicious. The school was cleared of all students and staff, who were directed to a nearby facility to reunite with their families.
Investigators Friday afternoon were searching a trailer where they believe the devices were assembled, a law enforcement source said.
Shortly after Florida Gov. Rick Scott was made aware of the shooting, he issued a statement: "My wife, Ann, and I are devastated to learn of the tragic school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas today. I just spoke to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and offered any assistance or support they may need in response to this horrific act of violence against innocent students, teachers and law enforcement," said Scott.
"As we continue to mourn the loss we experienced in Florida on February 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, we unfortunately know the enormity of the grief they are experiencing and our hearts are broken over this senseless tragedy.”
Santa Fe students have been sharing their memories of this incident with network news commentators.
Student Damon Rabon told CBS News he looked out his classroom door with a substitute teacher after hearing several loud bangs and saw the gunman.
"Black trench coat, short kind of guy, had a sawed-off shotgun," Damon said.
The substitute teacher then pulled the fire alarm in the hope of alerting students and faculty in other areas of the school and getting them to evacuate.
Tyler Turner, a senior at the school, told KHOU-TV in Houston that his friend saw "some kid" with a gun. When teachers and students were outside after the fire alarm was pulled, shots were fired, Tyler said.
"As soon as the alarms went off, everybody just started running outside," 10th-grader Dakota Shrader told reporters, "and next thing you know, everybody looks, and you hear boom, boom, boom, and I just ran as fast as I could to the nearest floor so I could hide, and I called my mom."
Tyler said he ran behind some trees, heard more shots, jumped a fence and ran to a car wash.
Late in the day, investigators still were in the process of serving search warrants at two residences and the suspect's car, but they were using extreme caution because of the potential for uncovering more explosive devices.
Neighbors of the suspect told TV media Pagourtzis lived at the mobile home with his family, who usually kept to themselves.
A woman who answered the phone at a number associated with the Pagourtzis family declined to speak with the press.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the suspect had information in journals, on his computer and on cell phones that indicated he wanted to commit the shooting and take his own life afterward. Abbott said the suspect "gave himself up" and told authorities that he did not have the courage to take his own life.
A law enforcement source said Pagourtzis posted the phrase "Dangerous Days" on social media before the rampage, with a pentagram symbol.
Sources for this story largely were CBS, NBC and CNN News.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
