SANTA FE, Texas — There was an unexpected development late Friday as testimony continued in the civil lawsuit against the parents of accused Santa Fe High School shooting gunman Dimitrios Pagourtzis.
Eight students and two teachers were killed and 13 people were wounded in the May 2018 mass shooting at the school in Galveston County, south of Houston.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, now 23, has repeatedly been ruled incompetent to stand trial, most recently in January.
Attorneys representing survivors and victims' families say his parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, should be held financially liable for the shooting because they didn't limit his access to guns. Pagourtzis told police he got some of the weapons used from his family's gun cabinet. According to testimony, the teen had tactical gear and accessories for weapons delivered to his home.
Attorneys say the parents also failed to help their son amid a mental health crisis. Jurors also saw videos of Pagourtzis interviews where he said he'd had homicidal thoughts since 8th grade and he'd been intentionally acting out for years so someone would notice he was struggling.
In an alleged journal entry, Pagourtzis wrote: “You want a motive. How about because the idea of pumping my classmates full of buckshot and watching them writhe in the ground in agony like the vermin they are is an exhilarating thought.”
The defense has argued that the school is partially to blame for the mass shooting because Pagourtzis used school computers for Google searches on guns, ammunition and prior shootings. Defense attorney Lori Laird said the search terms included: Columbine evidence photos, Columbine suicides, Virginia Tech shooting, sawed-off automatic shotguns, 223 vs 556 ammunition, Full Metal Jacket, 357 revolver and ammunition seller Lucky Gunner. There were also searches for combat knives, tactical vests, gas masks, helmets, sulfuric acid, fuses and more.
However, the Galveston County District Attorney's Office released a statement on Friday that pushed back on the claims.
“Our Office was previously ordered to produce certain evidence collected during the investigation of the Santa Fe High School shooting. That information consists of thousands upon thousands of electronic files, data, images, and documents collected from various sources. During the investigation, some of this information was organized in various electronic folders and subfolders, including a subfolder entitled, “SFHS Computer Dump.” That subdirectory folder and its contents were among the electronic evidence produced to the attorneys in the civil case as ordered by the trial court. Our Office has not attributed the source of any of this evidence as originating from a specific computer, device, or other source. At this point, we cannot comment further.”
When KHOU 11 reached out to Santa Fe ISD for a comment, district officials also pushed back on Laird's claims. In a statement, officials said that students did not have individual computer logins in 2018, therefore searches of individual student internet use could not be tracked.