Updated: Friday, May 18, 2018, 2:17 p.m. EDT: A law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, has identified the Santa Fe, Texas, school shooting suspect as 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis.
According to the Associated Press, Pagourtzis plays on the Santa Fe High School junior varsity football team and was a member of a local Greek Orthodox church’s dance group.
The newswire attempted to reach out to a number associated with the Pagourtzis family, but the woman who answered the phone declined to speak, saying, “Give us our time right now, thank you.”
KHOU-TV reports that Pagourtzis recently posted a photo to his social media wearing a shirt that read, “Born to Kill,” with the caption “We all die sometime.”
There were also photos of a gun and a knife, as well as a long green coat with Nazi regalia.
Earlier:
At least nine people were killed Friday after a gunman opened fire at Santa Fe (Texas) High School. At least a dozen others were injured in the massacre.
According to the Houston Chronicle, police have taken a student suspect into custody and detained another person in connection with the shooting.
“I’m told they’re both students,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said, according to KHOU-TV. “One was identified as the suspect and another was detained, for what reason I don’t know.”
The gunman was armed with multiple firearms, including an AR-15-type rifle, a pistol, a shotgun and even pipe bombs, a senior law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak about the investigation told the Chronicle.
“Officers inside encountered a bloody mess in the school,” the source said. “Evidently this guy threw pipe bombs all in there. We don’t know if any of them went off.”
KHOU also reports that police found explosive devices both inside and around the school. The news station described the main suspect as a 17-year-old, whose name has not yet been formally released.
Gunfire was first reported at around 7:40 a.m. Friday, with witnesses saying that at least one suspect came into the school and started shooting in an art class.
Other students said that the shooter was throwing explosives into a classroom.
Two students reported that their friend saw another juvenile with a gun and pulled a fire alarm as they ran away. A teacher also pulled the fire alarm, other witnesses said.
Sante Fe High School 10th-grader Dakota Shrader told the Chronicle that she heard the alarms go off and evacuated the building, expecting a normal fire drill. That was when she heard three gunshots, followed by screams of “Run! Run!”
“The world, I just don’t like what it’s becoming,” Shrader said. “Every school shooting, kids getting killed, innocent kids getting killed. No family should have to suffer that just because somebody wants to be selfish and go out and hurt other people. It’s just not right at all.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a statement regarding the shooting at around 10:45 a.m.
“The thoughts and prayers of all Texans are with the people of Santa Fe and those affected by today’s tragic shooting. As horrific reports come out of Santa Fe High School, my office stands ready to assist local law enforcement as needed,” the statement read.
President Donald Trump also offered his condolences, promising that his “administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools, and to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others.”
As the Chronicle notes, this shooting is the worst to happen since 17 people were killed in Parkland, Fla., in February.