SANTA FE, Texas, May 18: He was a quiet Texas teenager who danced with his Greek church group and played football. He had a passion for symbology and Japanese history.
On Friday, authorities said, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis put on a trenchcoat, walked into an art class at his high school in Santa Fe, near Houston, and shot nine fellow students and a teacher dead.
There were no red flags beforehand to indicate that Pagourtzis was headed for trouble, Governor Greg Abbott said. But social media and journal entries revealed a young man infatuated with guns, determined to kill and to die.
A Facebook post on April 30 showed a black T-shirt with the words “Born to Kill” printed in white. The Facebook page has since been taken down.
Abbott told reporters that entries in the teen’s personal journals, seized by police, showed, “Not only did he want to commit the shooting, but he wanted to commit suicide after the shooting.”
But, Abbott said, “He didn’t have the courage to commit suicide.”
He said the suspected gunman, a junior at Santa Fe High School, was armed with a shotgun and a .38 revolver, both taken from his father, possibly without the parent’s knowledge.
Pictures of a Greek festival affiliated with the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church in Galveston showed Dimitrios, the son of a Green immigrant, dancing with other costumed performers. The pictures were archived on the church’s Facebook page. Dimitrios was identified in a photo caption.
One fellow student said Pagourtzis was especially fascinated with Japanese imperialism and samurai culture, and interested in mystical and military symbols like the German Iron Cross and hammer and sickle he wore as pins on his clothing.
Classmates remembered that he often wore a trench coat, similar to the one authorities said the shooter used to conceal the firearms carried into the school.
One student said Pagourtzis kept to himself and “never really talked to other people.” But Clayton George, 16, a sophomore who played football with Pagourtzis this year, said he regularly spoke with him at practice.
“He was one of the nicest guys on the football team. Always easy to talk to,” he told Reuters. But, he said, Pagourtzis would sometimes get “poked” by his teammates in locker room horseplay.
Pagourtzis was held without bond on Friday, authorities said, at the Galveston County Jail after being charged with capital murder.
‘Born to kill’ Texas shooter a loner fascinated with Nazi and communist symbols
‘Born to kill’ Texas shooter a loner fascinated with Nazi and communist symbols
- On Friday, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis put on a trenchcoat, walked into an art class at his high school in Santa Fe, near Houston, and shot nine fellow students and a teacher dead.
- A Facebook post on April 30 showed a black T-shirt with the words “Born to Kill” printed in white. The Facebook page has since been taken down.
Related
Philippine lawmakers start VP Duterte impeachment hearings
- The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds
MANILA: A Philippine congressional committee began impeachment hearings Monday that could dash Vice President Sara Duterte’s run for the country’s top job.
The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who recently announced her candidacy for the 2028 presidential election, was impeached by the country’s House of Representatives last year only to see the Supreme Court toss the case out over procedural issues.
The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds while in office and will see the House justice committee debate three such complaints.
A fourth case was dropped by complainants who hoped to speed up the process.
Duterte also stands accused of making a death threat against her former ally and current President Ferdinand Marcos, with whom she is engaged in an explosive political feud.
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the 2028 presidential race.
The latest impeachment bid faces a changed environment with the vice president ahead in recent polls, analysts told AFP.
“The political context will be very different, especially now that Sara declared her candidacy,” University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said.
“It’s definitely going to weigh on the minds of the members of the House of Representatives,” Franco said, adding that a vote for impeachment would effectively see a lawmaker’s career “marked for death.”
Anthony Lawrence Borja, an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University agreed saying: “It is ultimately a question of whether the patronage of the current administration outweighs their fear of Duterte’s condemnation.”
The same committee hearing the case against Duterte last month tossed out a pair of impeachment complaints against Marcos, ruling that allegations of corruption over a scandal involving bogus flood control projects lacked substance.
Michael Wesley Poa, spokesman for Duterte’s defense team, told AFP they were closely monitoring deliberations and trusted “the same standards” used in the Marcos hearing would be applied.
