Investigators are awaiting for the results of autopsies on the ten victims of the Santa Fe shooting after admitting that some of the students hit in the attack could have been caught in the crossfire.
Cops, arrived just four minutes after Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, allegedly burst into a Santa Fe High School art classroom yelling ‘Surprise!’ and opened fire on his classmates and teachers.
Officers and the teen gunman engaged in a 25-minute shootout before Pagourtzis gave himself up.
Ten were left dead and thirteen others were injured in the mass shooting. At least two of those wounded are still hospitalized, including school police officer John Barnes, who remained in critical condition, said the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset told CNN that it is not yet clear if all the victims were struck by bullets from the shooter.
Cops, arrived just four minutes after Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, allegedly burst into a Santa Fe High School art classroom yelling ‘Surprise!’ and opened fire
Trochesset said the medical examiner’s autopsies should be able to determine what bullets and weapons killed the victims.
Investigators are now assessing footage from a ‘decent amount of cameras in the school’ to put a timeline together.
At least two of those wounded in Friday’s mass shooting are still hospitalized, including school police officer John Barnes, who remained in critical condition, said the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Pagourtzis faces charges of capital murder and aggravated assault of a public servant. He is alleged to have used his father’s legally owned shotgun and revolver in the rampage.
His attorneys told reporters Monday that their client was ‘in a state.’
‘I think that there is definitely something going on in terms of mental health history,’ attorney Nicholas Poehl told NBC News.
Law enforcement officers responded to the Santa Fe High School shooting within minutes
Students were seen evacuating the Texas high school after shots rang out during first period on Friday morning
‘I still think he’s very confused about the incident.’
Recalling the attack on Good Morning America, student Trenton Beazely said the shooter ‘was playing music, making jokes, had slogans and rhymes he kept saying.’
‘Every time he’d kill someone he’d say, ‘another one bites the dust.”
A statewide moment of silence was held in the morning to remember the eight students and two teachers killed.
Mourners gathered at white wooden crosses planted in front of the school, with a victim’s name and a red heart on each cross.
Already frayed nerves were rattled in neighboring communities where three schools reported gun threats.
One student brought an unloaded gun to campus, while at another school a student brought a gun apparently to harm himself, and a student texted someone else asking them to bring a gun at a third school, according to local media.
All three were arrested.
Schools in Santa Fe were closed through Tuesday and a crisis hotline was set up for traumatized students and parents.
Several Texas school administrators announced new safety measures as nervous parents sent children back to school in neighboring communities.
‘We will be increasing police visibility at each school through the remainder of the school year,’ Greg Smith, the superintendent of schools at Clear Creek, said in a letter.
Pagourtzis (left and right) gave himself up after a 25-minute shootout with the cops
A photo showing a handgun and a knife appeared on an Instagram account associated with Pagourtzis in late April
Warning signs: On his now-deleted Facebook page, Pagourtzis on April 30 shared a photo of a black T-shirt with the words ‘Born to Kill’ printed across the front (left). Other photos shared on Pagourtzis’s page the same day in April depicted a dark-colored trenchcoat festooned with various insignia, including the Nazi Iron Cross (right)
Another school banned backpacks to prevent hidden weapons from slipping through, while others changed dress codes to forbid heavy clothing such as the trench coat Pagourtzis was said to be wearing to conceal his weapons.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, officially announced a series of town hall meetings to discuss schools safety. They will be held at the state capital starting Tuesday.
Texas, a conservative stronghold, has some of the most permissive firearm laws in the United States, and new gun restrictions are unlikely.
Abbott has focused on mental health issues and arming school personnel.
The Democratic mayor of Houston, while advocating for metal detectors at all schools, also called for tougher gun laws.
‘There’s nothing wrong with reasonable, pragmatic (gun) restrictions,’ Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a news conference.