The difference in Texas is that the parents of the gunman, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, have not been accused of any crime.
Instead, the case is among the first in which those victimized by a school shooting are trying to hold the gunman’s parents liable in civil court.
I no believe in shooting,” Mr. Pagourtzis said during questioning by the plaintiffs’ lawyer last week.
On Monday, the safe and cabinet were wheeled into the courtroom, with Mr. Pagourtzis helping his lawyer, Lori Laird, maneuver one of them into place.
When asked if he knew that his son’s favorite song was titled “Angel of Death,” Mr. Pagourtzis said he did not know the song.
The focus of the country’s response to mass shootings, which are frequently committed by teenagers living at home, has shifted to the parents of the gunmen and whether or not they are accountable for their children’s horrifying deeds.
That has been the main focus of a civil trial that is currently underway in a small county courtroom in Galveston, Texas, on the Gulf Coast. The defendants are the parents of a 17-year-old gunman who, in 2018 at Santa Fe High School, murdered two teachers and eight of his peers.
This is the first trial of this kind since a Michigan jury this year found the parents of a 15-year-old gunman guilty of involuntary manslaughter in connection with a mass shooting that their son carried out in 2021 at Oxford High School outside of Detroit. The handgun that the parents bought for their son and which he used in the shooting was not locked up, according to evidence the prosecutors presented.
The distinction lies in the fact that Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, the gunman’s parents, are not facing any criminal charges in Texas. Rather, it is one of the first cases where victims of a school shooting are attempting to hold the parents of the gunman accountable in a civil court.
The parents of the children murdered in the massacre are sitting in court a few yards away from Mr. Pagourtzis, a Greek immigrant, and his wife, Ms. Kosmetatos, for almost two weeks now.
Images of the victims as they appeared prior to the shooting and of the gunman embracing his father and participating in a Greek dance group at his church a few days prior to the assault have both been presented to the jury.
“My religion is Christianity. I acknowledge the existence of God. When questioned last week by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Mr. Pagourtzis stated, “I don’t believe in shooting.”. You’re attempting to criticize me. I assert that I gave it my all. “.
Whether the gunman’s parents were negligent in how they stored the weapons at home—roughly a dozen rifles, shotguns, and at least one handgun—and whether they could have done more to support their son, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who has been deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial since the shooting are the two main questions at stake.
In his introductory remarks, plaintiffs’ attorney Clint McGuire stated, “There were red flags.”. “If they are saying that they were unaware of his depression, it is because they were bad parents and should have known. The gunman is also listed as a defendant in the lawsuit. ).
The gunman’s sister stated that the family’s firearms were visible upon entering the house and were stored in a glass and wood display cabinet in the living room and a black metal gun safe in the garage. The shotgun and handgun used in the shooting were among the many weapons that the gunman stole from his parents.
On Monday, the cabinet and safe were wheeled into the courtroom, and Mr. Pagourtzis assisted Lori Laird, his attorney, in moving one of them into position. Subsequently, the father appeared on the witness stand.
Hey, Mr. According to Pagourtzis, his son had to search until he found the keys, as both had been locked and concealed within the house. He declared, “Anyone who wants to find something will find it.”.
If a parent allows a child under the age of sixteen to obtain a loaded gun that has not been properly stored, they may face criminal charges in Texas. During the shooting, the gunman was 17 years old.
Mr. Pagourtzis claimed last week that he was unaware of the items his son had been purchasing online, including the ammunition used in the shooting, and that he was also unaware of the seemingly negative shift in his son’s interests. Mr. McGuire was questioning him about this.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Pagourtzis admitted he was unaware that his son’s favorite song was called “Angel of Death.”. He claimed to have been unaware of his son’s apparent fascination with school shootings from online searches and to have missed his son’s upsetting computer journal entries, some of which detailed an abusive home environment.
When questioned about the homicidal fantasies in the entries, Mr. Pagourtzis stated, “Because he writes something, it does not mean that he wrote down the truth.”.
He attested that his son had been an excellent student who ran track, played the clarinet, and played football in high school. He claimed he was unaware of his son’s growing absences from school during his junior year and the grades that started to drop off of his report card.
In her opening statement, defense attorney Ms. Laird claimed that Dimitrios’s personal home computer had never been searched by his parents. Given that Dimitri was nearly eighteen, why would they? “.
Mrs. Laird said that the mother of the gunman did get in touch with the school following her son’s alleged plagiarism on an assignment, and that she had discussed mental health and school shootings with both the gunman and his sister, especially following the shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in early 2018.
But according to Ms. Laird, the gunman’s problems were concealed. She claimed that his mother was unaware of what was going through his son’s head. He was extremely distressed and in great pain. However, he kept it a secret. “.
The civil trial has also marked the first attempt at public accountability in the six years since the shooting, as there has been no criminal trial against the gunman, who is still receiving mental health treatment in a state hospital.
The Santa Fe massacre has frequently gone unnoticed in the crowded history of mass shootings in recent years, overshadowed by other tragedies and the general desire of the people in the community south of Houston to move on. The trial has drawn little attention from local reporters; it started on July 31 and may continue into next week.
At the time of the attack, Trenton Beazley was a sophomore and fifteen years old. He talked about running away from the gunman. He related to jurors how he saw one student who was critically injured “take his last breaths” and another who was heavily bleeding.
Dear Mr. As the gunman taunted the students inside the barricaded area while singing the lyrics to Queen’s song “Another One Bites the Dust,” Beazley claimed to be able to smell gun smoke and hear the sound of broken glass underfoot. “.
Oh, wait, you can’t. The gunman said, “Do you want to come answer this?” as some of the students’ abandoned phones began to ring. That you are gone. “.
Junior Chase Yarbrough, then 17 years old, recalled that one of his classmates said to him, “Hey man, I think you got hit,” during the shooting. Blood was all over his nose when he touched it. Mr. Dot Yarbrough informed his father over the phone that there had been a shooting at the school. He should flee, his father ordered.
Mr. Convinced that the gunman was pursuing him, Yarbrough leaped over an external wall, twisted his ankle, and began to run across a field. He desperately crawled on the ground until his father and a policeman discovered him after his ankle failed him.
