Texas shooting suspect 'spared victims to tell his story'

International Desk: The Santa Fe High School shooting suspect told police he spared certain students he liked "so he could have his story told", a court document shows.

Dimitrios Pagourtzis has been charged with murder after 10 people were shot dead on Friday in the Texas town.

According to an affidavit filed in court, Mr Pagourtzis, 17, waived his right to remain silent and admitted "to shooting multiple people".

Authorities said he exchanged gunfire with police before surrendering.

The gun battle went on for about 15 minutes before Mr Pagourtzis gave himself up, abandoning a plan to take his own life, the New York Times reported.

Police now say that eight students and two teachers were killed, with 13 people wounded in the attack, including one of the school's policemen who is in critical condition.

The details in the affidavit, released by the Galveston County District Attorney's Office, appeared to shed some new light on Mr Pagourtzis's arrest inside the school building.

The documents said he emerged from the school's Art Lab 2 classroom at 08:02 on Friday, about 30 minutes after the first reports of a shooting, and surrendered. Authorities said two apparent improvised explosive devices he brought to the scene turned out to be harmless.

The affidavit also said Mr Pagourtzis was wearing a trench coat and had a Remington 870 shotgun and a .38 calibre pistol. Previous testimony from students described him as wearing a long black trench coat.

One student, Breanna Quintanilla, told the Associated Press that Mr Pagourtzis walked into the classroom she was in, pointed at someone, and said: "I'm going to kill you." Ms Quintanilla was wounded in her leg as she fled.

Mr Pagourtzis has been charged with capital murder and aggravated assault of a public servant. The first charge means he could face the death penalty.

He appeared "weirdly non-emotional" on the morning after the shooting, one of his lawyers said on Saturday.

Nicholas Poehl, one of two lawyers hired by the suspect's parents, told Reuters news agency he had spent an hour with the suspect on Friday night and Saturday morning.

"He's very emotional and weirdly nonemotional," the attorney said. "There are aspects of it he understands and there are aspects he doesn't understand."

Source: BBC



risingbd/May 20, 2018/Mukul