Of all the shooting incidents that took place across the globe, during the period 1996-2012, 31% occurred in the United States. Mass shootings have become a curse nowadays and no public place can be declared as safe. Several movements have been recorded in order to force US government to revisit their laws of weapon ownership. The government of United States has not been very successful to address the demands of gun control and as a result, the country has faced such incidents more than any other country.
A similar incident of mass shooting took place in Santa Fe, Texas, where a school was targeted for the brutal step. Similar incidents have happened in the past and it is no surprise that a similar one happened at Santa Fe School. Such incidents will keep happening unless the laws for gun control and check on gun ownerships are not revised.
What happened at Santa Fe School??
According to the sources, a mass shooting incident took place at Santa Fe School on Friday shortly before 8:00. At least 10 individuals, mostly students, have been reported as dead and the same number of people injured. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, aged 17, has been found suspected. The suspect is also a student of respective school and was expected to be graduated in 2019. Pagourtzis entered the arts class with a shotgun and opened fire, resulting in a fire alarm by the school authorities.
Santa Fe High School student Dakota Shrader, who is an asthma patient, recounts the whole incident, giving an interview to CBC News, saying,” I and my friend Ryan, we ran towards the woods as we had no idea who the gunman was and who should we trust. I called my Mom and told her the whole situation. I had an asthma attack during the whole scene.” The gunman, Pagourtzis, had planned to kill himself after the incident, but failed to gather courage to perform a suicide. He gave himself to the law enforcement forces when he thought he had finished the job. According to the officials, there were no red flags or warning signs from the suspect to which they could’ve possibly responded. Even if there was any sign, that was not a clear one.
An exchange student, from Pakistan, among the list of dead:
Among the 10 persons died, most are the students. The school has confirmed the death of an exchange student Sabika Sheikh, aged 18, from Pakistan. She went to the United States after getting selected for the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study Abroad program (YES). The program was intended to bring Muslim students to the country, after the dreadful events of 9/11, for the sake of cultural exchange. Sabika was expected to join her family on Eid-ul-fitr, a day celebrated after the holy month of Ramadan.
Her parents in Pakistan got informed by the television news after which they contacted the school administrator, who confirmed the death. Other victims are expected to be identified soon. A substitute teacher, Cynthia Tisdale, is among the dead and her brother-in-law confirmed the news by writing good words about her on social media platform, Facebook. He recalled her as an amazing person in his post. There were around 1400 students in the school, at the time of the happening. Students of Santa Fe school have gone through a mental tremor as they didn’t expect a student to take such a step.
About the Suspect:
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, according to his family, was a sweet boy and they had no idea that he can take such a cruel step. His teammates have described him as a quite person who rarely got informal with others. Pagourtzis has described himself as an Atheist who also hates politics. His Facebook timeline doesn’t offer much apart from a picture of a T-shirt saying, “Born to die”, shared by the suspect.
He served as a player for the Santa Fe School Indians American football team for the season 2015-16. He was also a member of a dance squad and was expected to graduate in 2019. Officials have not yet discovered the objectives behind such brutality but different point of views are being circulated.
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