SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD ACTIVE SHOOTER AT SANTA FE,  TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL KILLS 10,
INJURES 13,  AFTER STUDYING  MASS SHOOTING TECHNIQUES FROM NEWS REPORTS

RISKAlert Report #1035 Updated:  May 20, 2018                                                      Santa Fe, Texas

At 7:25 am on a Friday morning in Santa Fe, Texas, a 17-year-old student walked into his classroom, wearing a trench coat and armed with his dad’s Remington 970 shotgun and .38 caliber pistol that he used to shoot 23 people inside his school.  Ten were killed and 13 were injured in the planned shooting.  Armed officers responded within four minutes and a gun battle
ensued with the subject.

Although a romantic failure may have triggered the attack, the shooter had long been a fan of active shooters and studied previous shootings, like pulling of the fire alarms in the recent Parkland shooting. He wore a trenchcoast, mirroring the horrific Columbine High School shooting in April, 1999, in which two teenage boys with weapons hidden under trench coats killed 12 students and one teacher

According to a witness, the shooter yelled “WOO HOO”, as he shot up the classroom.  Multiple media accounts say the gunman taunted some of his victims, asking some hiding in a closet if they wanted to answer their ringing cell phones. “You want to get that?” the attacker said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

He spared others saying he wanted his story told. Police also found five homemade pipe bombs that did not detonate.

The shooter had pursued a romantic interest, Shana Fisher, for the past four month, according to her mother, but she refused to date him.  Shana was shot and killed in the incident.  Her mother said that the previous week, her daughter, Shana, has said in media accounts that her 16-year-old daughter had rejected four months of aggressive advances from Pagourtzis.
Fisher finally stood up to him in front of the entire class, and proclaimed she would never go out with him, embarrassing him in class, her mother told the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the aspects of the attack mirrored one of the worst school shootings in American history: the massacre at Columbine High School in April, 1999, in which two teenage boys with weapons hidden under trenchcoats killed 12 students and one teacher.

LESSONS LEARNED

       1.  Even with a relatively quick 4-minute response time, there were still 10 killed and 13 injured, demonstrating that
            even a well-armed police officer cannot quickly stop the killing, once  shooting starts!!

2. Texas State officials blamed the attack on video games, on abortions, and on too many entrances and exits
   to the high school buildings, even though the school lacked any access control, no metal detection and
   no screening of any kind.
3. Underage students should not have ready access to firearms. The shooter’s parents apparently missed the fact that
   he assembled pipe bombs in his bedroom, had access to guns, and avidly recounted mass shootings.

4. Why are parents fined if their child is late in returning a library book, but not if their child shoots
   and kills people with daddy’s guns?

   The massacre claimed Shana Fisher’s life, and also claimed the lives of students Sabika Sheikh, a Pakistani exchange student; Chris Stone; Jared Black, Angelique Ramirez; Christian Riley Garcia; Aaron Kyle McLeod; and Kimberly Vaughan. Teachers Glenda Ann Perkins and Cynthia Tisdale were also killed.

The people hospitalized included retired Houston police Officer John Barnes, who served as a resource officer at the school and confronted the gunman.

Pagourtzis did not attempt suicide, like the Columbine shooters, but Texas’ governor, Greg Abbott, a Republican, told reporters that the youth wanted to kill himself, citing the suspect’s journals, but lacked the courage to do so.

Dimitrios Pagourtzis,  is being held without bail and is accused of capital murder of multiple people and aggravated assault on a public servant.  he suspect won’t face the death penalty if he is convicted. Under Texas law, offenders who are under age 18 and charged with a capital offense face a maximum punishment of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years.

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