Teacher, 9 Students Killed in Texas High School Shooting

By Bennett Oghifo with agency report

Nine students and a teacher were confirmed dead in yesterday’s shooting at Santa Fe High School, near Houston, Texas, United States of America.

According to CNN, Police responded to reports of shots fired at the school and confirmed 10 people were dead, and eight students were treated for gunshot wounds.

A 17-year old-male student, “Dimitrios Pagourtzis is suspected of conducting the shooting yesterday at a Texas high school, Federal law enforcement officials told CNN and confirmed to the Houston Chronicle by the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office.”

Authorities are talking to the shooting suspect, who was also injured, according to a law enforcement official. Investigators have not found the suspect in a system that tracks hand guns purchases.

The suspect from the Santa Fe High School shooting has been booked into the Galveston County Jail. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, is being held on capital murder without bond and additional charges may follow, the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office says.

The Texas shooting suspect was wearing a long coat and hiding a shotgun underneath when he walked on to Santa Fe High School and opened fire, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said at news conference.

He noted the temperature outside was approximately 90 degrees.

The police chief was on his way to the school when the first shots were reported, he said. The chief then managed to pull an injured officer to safety and return fire.

Patrick said two officers and a roving officer were assigned to the high school.

Retired Houston Police officer John Barnes was one of the people shot at Santa Fe High School, according to Raul Reyes, University of Texas Medical Board director of media relations. Barnes is still in the operating room being treated for a gunshot wound to the arm.

Barnes was in critical condition earlier but his condition is not clear at this time, Reyes said.

A second person is in custody and believed to be a possible accomplice to the suspected gunman in the Texas school shooting, according to a law enforcement official. “This person, who is 18 years old, is not the shooter,” the law enforcement official said.

At least 13 people from today’s school shooting were treated at Texas hospitals. Eight high school students from Santa Fe High School were treated for gunshot wounds at Clear Lake Regional Medical Center in Webster, Texas.

Six of the eight students have already been discharged. One patient is in fair condition and expected to remain in the hospital for several days.

Three patients are being treated at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Two patients were treated for non-life-threatening injuries at Mainland Medical Center in Texas City. They have been released.

March for Our Lives organisers; say “We are with you”. March for Our Lives, a massive demonstration created by the students from the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida, shared their support on Twitter for the victims of today’s shooting at Santa Fe High School.

“Santa Fe, we are with you, and we will do whatever we can to support you as the days go on,” the group tweeted.

The Democratic mayor of Dallas has strong words in the wake of the shooting at a high school outside Houston. In it, Mayor Mike Rawlings called on members of Congress to take “substantive action” to stop mass shootings and said “history will not look kindly upon those elected officials who failed to act in the face of repeated mass murders of our children.”

He added: “Spare us your thoughts and prayers and do your job.”