The suspect in a deadly shooting rampage at high school in Santa Fe, Texas, Friday morning has been identified as 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, US and international media report. Eight to ten people, mostly students, were killed and 12 were injured, after the teenager of Greek origin entered the classroom shouting “Surprise!” and started shooting around in a frenzy.
Pagourtzis is reportedly a student at the high school and he often fell victim of bullying by other students and teachers.
As police authorities were still actively searching for explosives, other law enforcement agencies are searching a mobile home less than three miles away where records show the teen lived, local media KHOU reported.
Authorities detected various explosive devices, including a CO2 device and a Molotov cocktail, that belonged to the shooter. The explosives were found at a home and a vehicle, Authorities are reportedly cautious in searching two residences believed to be associated with the suspect because of the potential of finding explosive devices inside.
A second person has been reportedly also detained and questioned, it is not clear whether this person is also a student at the school.
One student told Houston television station KTRK in a telephone interview that a gunman came into her first-period art class and started shooting. The student said she saw one girl with blood on her leg as the class evacuated the room.
“We thought it was a fire drill at first but really, the teacher said, ‘Start running,'” the student told the television station.
The suspect reportedly had an assault-style rifle, shotgun, and pistol.
Galveston Country sheriff’s office
In a press conference Friday afternoon (local time) governor Greg Abbott said that Pagourtzis, “e gave himself up and admitted at the time he didn’t have the courage to commit suicide, that he wanted to take his own life earlier.”
The shooting suspect wrote about his shooting and suicide plans “in journals on his computer and his cell phone,” Abbott said.
He was armed with a shotgun and a .38 revolver — both legally owned by his dad, Abbott said.
“I have no information if the father was aware the son had taken these weapons,” he said.
Dimitris Pagourtzis plays on the Santa Fe High School junior varsity football team, and is a member of a dance squad with a local Greek Orthodox church.
Pagourtzis’ social media pages showed images of guns.
He recently posted a photo of t-shirt with “Born to Kill” printed on the front, boasting that it was custom-made.
That same day, Pagourtzis posted multiple pictures of a duster jacket emblazoned with a variety of symbols including the Iron Cross, a German military award last given by the Nazis, and a hammer and sickle. He said he equated the Iron Cross with “bravery,” and the hammer and sickle with “rebellion.”
A student described Pagourtzis as a quiet and “weird” type of guy who stood out because he wore a trench coat every day.
Several students told media that he was bullied.
“I played football with him for three years,” Rey Montemayor III told dailybeast. “People on the news said he was bullied a lot. I never seen him being bullied. I never bullied him. He was cool to me. I lifted with him a couple of times.”
Neighbors of the suspect told local media KHOU Pagourtzis lived at the mobile home with his family, who usually kept to themselves, CBS reported.
A woman who answered the phone at a number associated with the Pagourtzis family declined to speak with the AP. She said: “Give us our time right now, thank you.”
*pictures are from Pagourtzis social media accounts.
Facebook confirmed to BuzzFeed News that they had removed the suspected shooter’s profile.
