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Texas shooting suspect seems 'weirdly nonemotional,' lawyer says

By REUTERS

MAY 19, 2018 23:03

Updated: MAY 19, 2018 23:04

SANTA FE - The 17-year-old student who authorities said killed 10 people when he opened fire in an art class in his Houston-area high school appeared "weirdly nonemotional" on the morning after the rampage, one of his lawyers said on Saturday.

The teenager, identified by law enforcement as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, has been charged with capital murder and is being held without bail in Santa Fe, Texas, where authorities said he opened fire shortly before 8 a.m. on Friday.

In addition to 10 fatalities, the shooter wounded at least 13 people, with two of them in critical condition. One of those in critical condition was one of the two school resource officers who engaged the shooter before his surrender.

Nicholas Poehl, one of two lawyers hired by the suspect's parents to represent him, told Reuters he had spent a total of one hour with Pagourtzis on Friday night and Saturday morning.

“He’s very emotional and weirdly nonemotional," the attorney said when asked to describe his client's state of mind. "There are aspects of it he understands and there are aspects he doesn’t understand.”

As the shooting unfolded, Pagourtzis spared people he liked so he could have his side of the story told, a charging document seen by Reuters showed, but there was no immediate indication why he apparently targeted the art class.

Investigators had seen a T-shirt on the suspect's Facebook page that read "Born to Kill," and authorities were examining his journal, Texas Governor Greg Abbott told reporters. But there were no outward signs he had been planning an attack.

Pagourtzis waived his right to remain silent and made a statement to authorities admitting to the shooting, according to an affidavit ahead of his arrest. Later he was charged with capital murder and denied bail at a court hearing.

Asked if Pagourtzis has provided authorities with information about the shootings, Poehl said: “Honestly because of his emotional state, I don’t have a lot on that.”

Santa Fe High School, southeast of Houston, became the scene of the fourth-deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. public school in modern history, joining a long list of campuses where students and faculty have fallen victim to gunfire.

The Texas rampage again stoked the nation's long-running debate over gun ownership, three months after a student-led gun control movement emerged from a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 teens and educators dead.

Students and faculty, bussed on to campus in small groups, were allowed to enter the high school on Saturday to retrieve belongings, though investigators closed off a section of the grounds. Police kept reporters about 100 yards (91.4 m) away.

All schools in the Santa Fe school district will remain closed on Monday and Tuesday, officials said at a short briefing.

In a letter dated Friday but posted on the district's website on Saturday, Superintendent Leigh Wall said eight of the dead were students and two were teachers. Authorities had earlier said that nine students and one teacher were killed.

A vigil was held on Friday night for the victims, who have not been officially identified.

"This will bring us closer together - hopefully, a positive impact from something negative," said Clayton George, 16, who played football with the suspect.

The Pakistan Embassy in Washington D.C. identified one of the victims on Twitter as Sabika Sheikh, a Pakistani exchange student, while the brother-in-law of Cynthia Tisdale, a teacher's aide and mother of four, said on Facebook she was killed in the attack.

National Football League star J.J. Watt, who plays defensive end for the Houston Texans, said he will pay for the funerals of the deceased, local media reported.

"Absolutely horrific," he tweeted about the shooting.

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