Santa Fe Shooting Suspect's Father Says Bullied Son 'Not a Criminal, He's a Victim'

The Santa Fe high school shooter's father has spoken out, claiming that his son is a victim after he murdered 10 people on Friday.

Antonios Pagourtzis talked about his son in a phone interview this weekend with Greece's Antenna TV. He said that he wished he could have stopped Friday's massacre, even explaining how he'd asked police to let him inside so that his son Dimitrios could kill him instead.
However, Antonios stressed the fact that his son was under a lot of pressure, especially due to the bullying he says he suffered at Santa Fe High School.

"Something must have happened now, this last week," he told the interviewer. "Somebody probably came and hurt him, and since he was a solid boy, I don't know what could have happened. I can't say what happened. All I can say is what I suspect as a father."

Pagourtzis' attorneys have also emphasized the bullying that the young man cites as his motive. He claims that "teacher-on-student" bullying in particular drove him to kill 10 people and and injure 13 others, explaining that the school's football coaches were cruel to him. The school district conducted an investigation into these claims and "confirmed that these reports were untrue.

Antonios further defended his family and himself by saying that he legally owned the firearms his son used on Friday. He believes Dimitrios took them from his closet before school.

"My son, to me, is not a criminal, he's a victim," he said. "The kid didn't own guns, I owned guns."

Dimitrios is currently being held in the Galveston County jail without bond. He is facing charges of capital murder. In the interview, his father said that he never showed any violent inclinations.

"He pulled the trigger but he is not this person," Antonios said. "It is like we see in the movies when someone gets into his body and does things that are not done. It's not possible in one day for the child to have changed so much."

He also said that he was granted a brief 15-20 minute visit with his son shortly after he was taken into custody.

"I saw the child. I didn't see a child who is a murderer. A pure child, a child who was ashamed to look me in the face," he said. "He was thinking of his sisters, how his sisters will be able to get about. He said he loves me, he told his mother he loves her and he will try to be strong to help us cope."

Dimitrios also told his father about how he had intentionally spared the lives of "the kids who were the good kids so they can tell his story."