On May 18, 2018, a

school shooting A school shooting is an Gun violence, armed attack at an educational institution, such as a primary school, secondary school, high school or university, involving the use of a firearm. Many school shootings are also categorized as mass shooti ...

occurred at Santa Fe High School in

Santa Fe, Texas Santa Fe () is a city in Galveston County, Texas, United States. It is named for the Santa Fe Railroad (now part of BNSF Railway) which runs through the town alongside State Highway 6. The population of Santa Fe at the 2020 census was 12,735. ...

, United States, in the Houston metropolitan area. Ten people – eight students and two teachers – were fatally shot, and thirteen others were wounded. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a student at the school, was taken into custody. The shooting is the eighth-deadliest school shooting in the United States.

Background

The Santa Fe Independent School District has an active shooter plan, and two armed

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

s that interacted with students in the school. In the year prior to the shooting, the school district leadership made plans to arm teachers and staff through the Texas School Marshal Program.

Preparation

On March 2, 2018, Dimitrios Pagourtzis logged on to LuckyGunner.com and purchased 50 rounds of .38 Special ammunition and 105 rounds of 12-gauge shotgun ammunition. Two weeks later, on March 13, 2018, Pagourtzis ordered an additional 35 rounds of 12-gauge shotgun ammunition. In both cases, Pagourtzis was not required to provide any proof of age, he paid using an

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

gift card A gift card, also known as a gift certificate in North America, or gift voucher or gift token in the UK, is a prepaid stored-value card, stored-value money card, usually issued by a retailer or bank, to be used as an alternative to cash for pu ...

, used his real name and address for shipment, and declined the adult signature requirement, with both his orders being automatically approved, and shipped through

FedEx FedEx Corporation, originally known as Federal Express Corporation, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company specializing in Package delivery, transportation, e-commerce, and ...

Shooting

The gunman began firing a weapon into an art class at the school at 7:32 a.m. CDT. The incident occurred in the school's art complex, which consists of four interconnected rooms with interior hallways, and four other rooms. Witnesses said the two targeted classrooms are connected by a ceramics room that the shooter accessed by damaging a door window. During the shooting a staff member pulled a fire alarm, causing most of the school to evacuate. One wounded victim told reporters the shooter walked into the classroom and pointed his firearm at another person, singing "

Another One Bites the Dust "Another One Bites the Dust" is a song by the British Rock music, rock band Queen (band), Queen. Written by bassist John Deacon, the song was featured on the group's eighth studio album ''The Game (Queen album), The Game'' (1980). It was a worl ...

" in between shots. According to a witness, students barricaded themselves in the art classroom storage closet but the shooter shot through the door with a

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

. He left the art room briefly, causing students to leave the closet and attempt to barricade the art room door, but he pushed the door open. Upon spotting a student he knew, he said "Surprise!" and shot the student in the chest. Students are credited with giving victims first aid. Santa Fe ISD Police officers stationed at the school exchanged fire with the shooter, with one officer being wounded and admitted in critical condition to a local hospital. After the gunman shot into the ceramics room, he was engaged by another school officer and a

Texas Highway Patrol The Texas Highway Patrol is a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety and is the largest state-level law enforcement agency in the U.S. state of Texas. The patrol's primary duties are enforcement of state traffic laws and commercial moto ...

trooper who attempted to have him surrender peacefully. He reportedly threatened to shoot the officers and repeatedly fired rounds while arguing with the police. He surrendered to the officers after being injured. The Galveston County Sheriff said officers confronted him within four minutes and allowed for the safe evacuation of other students and faculty. Parents were kept off school grounds during the response to the shooting, with parents being directed to the Alamo gym by 8 AM. Students were then evacuated to the gym and reunited with their parents.

Victims

Ten people were killed and thirteen people were injured. The eight students and two teachers killed were:

Investigation

The shooter told police he meant to kill the classmates he shot and wanted to spare the students he liked, so he could "have his story told". The shooting lasted about 25 minutes until he was arrested. According to the probable cause

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or ''deposition (law), deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by la ...

and complaint filed by law enforcement, the shooter used a short-barreled

12-gauge The gauge (in American English or more commonly referred to as bore in British English) of a firearm is a unit of measurement used to express the inner diameter (bore diameter) and other necessary parameters to define in general a smoothbore barr ...

Remington Model 870 The Remington Model 870 is a Pump action shotgun, pump-action shotgun manufactured by Remington Arms, Remington Arms Company, LLC. It is widely used by the public for shooting sports, hunting and self-defense, as well as by law enforcement and mi ...

pump-action shotgun Pump action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by moving a sliding handguard on the gun's forestock. When shooting, the sliding forend is pulled rearward to eject any expended cartridge and typically to cock the hammer or s ...

and a Rossi .38-caliber snub-nosed

revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

. Both firearms appear to have been legally owned by his father. Various types of

explosive device An explosive device is a device that relies on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide a violent release of energy. Applications of explosive devices include: *Building implosion (demolition) * Excavation *Explosive forming ...

s were found at the school and off campus, as well as a

Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a Fuse (explosives), fuse (typically a glass bottle filled wit ...

, and residents in the surrounding area were warned to be aware of all suspicious objects. Two other people were detained by police as persons of interest. One was detained at the scene due to "suspicious reactions" after the shooting, and another was described as being interviewed.

Perpetrator

The suspected shooter was identified by police as Dimitrios Pagourtzis (born October 12, 2000), a 17-year-old junior at the school. He is charged with

capital murder Capital murder refers to a category of murder in some parts of the US for which the perpetrator is eligible for the death penalty. In its original sense, capital murder was a statutory offence of aggravated murder in Great Britain, Northern Irela ...

of multiple people and

aggravated assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result ...

against a public servant, and has been held in custody without bail. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 40 years to life. His father came to the United States in his mid-twenties from Magoulista, Karditsa, Greece. He ran a business in the Santa Fe area selling agricultural machinery. According to at least one witness, Pagourtzis was bullied by multiple students and coaches. The school denied the allegations of bullying by coaches. One of his former teachers described him as "quiet, but he wasn't quiet in a creepy way", and said that he had never seen him draw or write anything in his class journal that she found suspicious or unusual. Pagourtzis was on the honor roll, and he played on the school

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team. Pagourtzis's journals on his computer and cell phone, found by police after the shooting, suggested to Governor

Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott ( ; born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist who has served since 2015 as the 48th governor of Texas. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served from 2002 to ...

"not only did he want to commit the shooting, but he wanted to commit suicide after the shooting, planned on doing this for some time. He advertised his intentions but somehow slipped through the cracks." Classmates recounted how at a water park the day before the shooting Pagourtzis did not show any signs of his plans, and seemed friendly and funny. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' and ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' highlighted Pagourtzis's

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

presence. On April 30, Pagourtzis posted a photo of a shirt with the words "Born to Kill" on his Facebook page. The Facebook page also included photos of his black duster coat with several buttons on it, with an accompanying caption: "

Hammer and Sickle The hammer and sickle (Unicode: ) is a communist symbol representing proletarian solidarity between industrial and agricultural workers. It was first adopted during the Russian Revolution at the end of World War I, the hammer representing wo ...

=Rebellion. Rising Sun=

Kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

Tactics.

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire (1871–1918), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The design, a black cross pattée with a white or silver outline, was derived from the in ...

=Bravery.

Baphomet Baphomet is a figure incorporated across various occult and Western esotericism, Western esoteric traditions. During Trials of the Knights Templar, trials starting in 1307, the Knights Templar were accused of heresy for worshipping Baphomet as ...

=Evil. Cthulu=Power." The Facebook page has since been taken down.

Legal proceedings

Pagourtzis was booked into the Galveston County Jail on two felony charges — capital murder of multiple people and aggravated assault against a police officer. He was ordered held without

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when ...

. Pagourtzis is represented by attorneys hired by his parents. Due to his age at the time of the shooting, Pagourtzis is ineligible for the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

or life without parole. If convicted of capital murder, he faces a life sentence with parole eligibility after 40 years. Aggravated assault on a public servant carries a 5-99 year or 30 years to life sentence. The defense team for Pagourtzis filed a

change of venue A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial (law), trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to wides ...

request to move the trial out of Galveston County due to the publicity of the case. On February 27, 2019, a judge granted the request without specifying the new venue. In April 2019, it was announced that Pagourtzis would be facing 11 federal charges, despite a previous statement that federal charges would not be pursued. In June 2019, it was announced that the state trial would take place in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

in January 2020. However, on November 4, 2019, Pagourtzis was found by three experts to be unfit to stand trial. He has been in custody at

North Texas State Hospital The North Texas State Hospital (NTSH) is a trio of inpatient mental health facilities owned by the State of Texas and operated by the Texas Health and Human Service Commission's Health and Specialty Care System division. NTSH has three campuse ...

since that month; on March 11, 2020, after hospital experts submitted a report declaring that he was not competent, nor likely to become so in the next 90 days, Judge John Ellisor signed an order requiring him to remain in mental health treatment for at least 12 months. On February 11, 2022, Pagourtzis was again found incompetent to stand trial and was ordered to stay in the mental hospital for another 12 months. Since then, Pagourtzis has been found not competent to stand trial and recomitted on February 1, 2023, January 26, 2024 and January 24, 2025.

Separate filings

The parents of victim Chris Stone filed a lawsuit against Pagourtzis's parents, claiming that his father did not properly secure his weapons and that the parents were negligent in entrusting their son with the firearms. Under Texas law, firearms cannot be made accessible to minors outside hunting purposes or parental supervision, and the penalty can be up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if the weapon causes serious injury or death. The parents of a second victim, Aaron McLeod, joined the lawsuit with additional allegations. Both families are also alleging that Pagourtzis's parents failed to obtain mental health counseling and support and to warn the public of his "dangerous propensities". The trial was set for July 2024. On August 19, 2024, the civil jury found Pagourtzis's parents not liable for the deaths, while they found Pagourtzis and the company that sold him ammunition, Lucky Gunner, liable. The families will not see further compensation from either of the two liable parties, since Pagourtzis is incompetent to stand trial and the families settled with the manufacturer out-of-court.

Aftermath

Students organized a candlelight vigil on May 18. Ten white crosses were placed in front of the school to memorialize the deceased. The white crosses were removed prior to the start of the 2018–19 school year, and families of the victims were permitted to take home anything that was left for their family member at the makeshift memorial. President Trump ordered all U.S. flags flown at

half-staff Half-mast or half-staff (American English) refers to a flag flying below the summit of a ship mast, a pole on land, or a pole on a building. In many countries this is seen as a symbol of respect, mourning, distress, or, in some cases, a sal ...

from May 18 until sunset on May 22. Blood drives were set up to support the local hospitals.

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

football player J. J. Watt offered to pay the funeral expenses of all the deceased. Local funeral homes, florists, and pastors offered heavily discounted or free rates for families of the deceased. On May 26, 2018, multiple fundraisers were held. One local business sponsored a fundraiser that brought in $257,000 for the victims. In 2019, the Santa Fe 10 Memorial Foundation was organized to raise funds for a permanent memorial; it had a $1.6 million goal. In 2019, partly in response to the Santa Fe High School shooting, the Texas Legislature allocated nearly $100 million to establish the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium. The following Monday of the shooting, there were five arrests in the

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the Office of Management and Budget, United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–Pasadena–The Woodlands, is the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical ...

area for bringing weapons to school or making threats in the Friendswood, Huffman, Cleveland, Clear Creek, and Texas City Independent School Districts. In July 2019 it emerged that David Briscoe, who had told reporters that he was a substitute at the school the day of the shooting, had lied about his actions. After the shooting, many sources including ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'',

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

, and ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' ran stories about how Briscoe protected his students until first responders came. In April 2019, he did a follow-up interview with ''

The Texas Tribune ''The Texas Tribune'' is a nonprofit politics and public policy news website headquartered in Austin, Texas, United States. Its stated aim is to promote civic engagement through original, explanatory journalism and public events. ''The Texas T ...

'' in which his claims included him moving to Florida, as he was haunted by the shooting. Upon further investigation by the reporter, it was discovered that Briscoe had never worked for the Santa Fe Independent School District, and upon the discovery that he had lied, Briscoe had since deleted several Twitter posts about his survival and the media outlets who published his account have removed them.

Reactions

The residents of Santa Fe largely declined media attention and also did not support political gun control actions. After the shooting, the president of the school district's Board of Trustees said the district's policies and procedures worked, and that it was not the failure of the procedures that accounted for the incident, adding someone intent on entering the school to create havoc would be able to do so in any event.As a result of the shooting, the district planned to renovate the northwest area of the campus, including sealing off the art rooms in which the shooting occurred, as well as the adjacent hallway. A new hallway and counselor's office was to be installed. A new protection plan was unveiled for the 2018–2019 school year, with

metal detector A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. A metal detector consists of a control box, an adjustable shaft, and ...

s at each entrance and police officers patrolling the campus with donated AR-15s equipped with rifle optics. The organizers of the

March for Our Lives March for Our Lives (MFOL) is a student-led organization which leads demonstrations in support of gun control legislation. The first demonstration took place in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2018, with over 880 sibling events throughout ...

, from the

Parkland high school shooting On February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, part of the Miami metropolitan area, Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 18 ot ...

three months earlier, tweeted "Though this is the 22nd school shooting this year, we urge those reading this not to sweep it under the rug and forget."

Pagourtzis's family

In a published statement, Pagourtzis's family extended their prayers and condolences to the victims and thanked

first responder A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency. First responders typically include Law enforcement, law enforcement officers (co ...

s for their assistance. According to the statement, they were as shocked by the event as everyone else. The family stated they were cooperating with authorities and requested the media and others to respect their privacy and that of the victims. While speaking to reporters, Pagourtzis's father, an immigrant from

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, claimed that his son's history of being bullied was the reason for the shooting.

Political

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

expressed his condolences in a press conference shortly following the shootings, and said his "administration is determined to do everything in tspower to protect our students". On May 31, Trump met with victims, families, and others affected, to discuss the event and try to find prevention methods.

Secretary of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

Betsy DeVos Elisabeth Dee DeVos ( ; ' Prince; born January 8, 1958) is an American politician, philanthropist, and former government official who served as the 11th United States Secretary of Education, United States secretary of education from 2017 to 2021 ...

said, "Our schools must be safe and nurturing environments for learning. No student should have to experience the trauma suffered by so many today and in similar events prior. We simply cannot allow this trend to continue." Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a press briefing that the attack was "one of the most heinous attacks that we've ever seen in the history of Texas schools." He also said that the shooter wanted to commit suicide later in the incident and called for all Texans to hold a moment of silence on May 21 at 10:00 AM CDT in honor of the victims, their families and first responders. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said the design of Texas schools with "too many entrances and too many exits" may have to be reconsidered. He said the issue is "not about the guns, it's about us."

Notes

References

External links