Santa Fe High School student Dakota Shrader is comforted by her mother Susan Davidson following a shooting at the school on Friday, May 18, 2018, in Santa Fe, Texas. Shrader said her friend was shot in the incident. GALVESTON CTY NEWS/AP PHOTO
SANTA FE, Texas — A gunman carrying a shotgun and a revolver opened fire at a Houston-area high school Friday, killing 10 people, most of them students, authorities said. It was the nation’s deadliest such attack since the massacre in Florida that gave rise to a campaign by teens for gun control.
The suspected shooter, who was in custody, also had explosive devices, including a molotov cocktail, that were found in the school and nearby, said Gov. Greg Abbott, who called the assault “one of the most heinous attacks that we’ve ever seen in the history of Texas schools.”
The assailant intended to kill himself but gave up and told authorities that he did not have the courage to take his own life, Abbott said.
Another 10 people were wounded at the school in Santa Fe, a city of about 13,000 people roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Houston. One hospital reported treating eight wounded patients. Six were treated and released. One was listed in critical condition, and another in fair condition.
Michael Farina, 17, said he was on the other side of campus when the shooting began and thought it was a fire drill. He was holding a door open for special education students in wheelchairs when a principal came bounding down the hall and telling everyone to run. Another teacher yelled out, “It is real!”
Students were led to take cover behind a car shop across the street from the school. Some still did not feel safe and began jumping the fence behind the shop to run even farther away, Farina said.
“I debated doing that myself,” he said.
A law enforcement official identified a person in custody in the shooting as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, also 17.
The official was not authorized to discuss the shooting by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.
A woman who answered the phone at a number associated with the Pagourtzis family declined to speak with the AP.
“Give us our time right now, thank you,” she said.
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