Who is Texas School Shooting Suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis?
On Friday, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis allegedly walked into a classroom at Sante Fe High School in Texas at approximately 7:45 a.m. and opened fire, killing nine students and one teacher, and leaving at least 10 others injured. According to police, he was armed with a pistol and a shotgun. He also threw pipe bombs into the classroom, according to witnesses, prompting the bomb squad to scour the scene as well as his home.
Pagourtzis, who had wanted to commit suicide according to Gov. Greg Abbott but in the end could not, survived the attack and is currently being held in the Galveston County Jail without bond where he has been charged with capital murder and aggravated assault of a police officer.
On Friday afternoon, he had his first appearance in court.
A second person, who may have aided Pagourtzis, is also in custody.
So who is Pagoutzis?
The alleged shooter was a 11th-grade student at the school known for being quiet and wearing a long trench coat even in the scorching heat, according to CBS News. He also posted rather ordinary photos of himself on social media on April 30th.
https://twitter.com/JRogalskiKHOU/status/997531576174022656
The alleged shooter was also was a former junior high honor student whose name was listed in local paper and junior varsity football player, even earning a mention in the news for his work helping the team.
According to AP, he also danced at his Greek Orthodox church and was thought of as “quiet boy.”
“He is a quiet boy,” Father Stelios Sitaras of Assumption of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church in Galveston, Texas, said of the alleged shooter. “You would never think he would do anything like this.”
Yet, as KHOU’s Jeremy Rogalski, among others, noted after scouring his Instagram account, he also appeared to have a darker side: he had posted a t-shirt reading “Born to Kill” as well as a post referencing “Kamikaze Tactics” and neo-Nazi symbolism.
https://twitter.com/JRogalskiKHOU/status/997532655599144961
His social media accounts have largely been deleted, although screenshots of an Instagram post of the teen talking about guns has survived as well as photos of a trench coat bearing Nazi, Communist and Satanic symbols.
On the day of the attack, the alleged school shooter apparently wore a long trench coat, boots, and according to some reports, his “Born to Kill” shirt to school despite the heat. One eyewitness said he wore a trench coat with “USSR” emblazoned on the back. He also carried with him a shotgun and .38 revolver legally owned by his father, which he used in the attack.
Yet despite troubling social media posts, Texas Governor Greg Abbott also said during a news conference that there were no real red flags that would indicate that the teen may turn into a killer.
“That would be maybe the only, if not the foremost, warning sign,” Abbott said during a Friday afternoon press conference, referring to the social media posts. “But as far as investigations by law enforcement agencies, as far as arrests or confrontation with law enforcement, as far as having a criminal history, he has none. His slate is pretty clean. There simply were not the same type of warning signs that we’ve seen in so many other shootings.”
[images via screengrab]
