Days before the Santa Fe High School shooting, the gunman was recorded dancing at church.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis is accused of murdering 10 people at his school on Friday, May 18. TMZ has obtained a video showing that just days before, he was dancing with other church-goers at a Greek festival in a neighboring town.
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Pagourtzis and his family are part of a Greek Orthodox church, which took part in a Greek heritage festival about 30 minutes away from Santa Fe, Texas. The 17-year-old killer took part in a choreographed dance that had reportedly been rehearsed extensively beforehand.
Another person at the festival recorded the performance, and ultimately sent the video to TMZ. In it, Pagourtzis does not betray his intention to go on a shooting spree a few days later.
Pagourtzis used his father’s legally owned shotgun to kill eight students and two teachers on Friday. He also injured ten more people. The teen was also carrying his father’s legally-owned .38 revolver, and a number of pipe bombs and other homemade explosives.
In the days since the attack, Pagourtzis’ father has spoken out in his defense. 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 Pagourtzis could kill him instead.
However, Antonios stressed his belief 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.”
As for how the teen could have gotten his hands on the guns, Antonios suggested that he simply took them from a closet on his way to school.
“My son, to me, is not a criminal, he’s a victim,” he said. “The kid didn’t own guns, I owned guns.”
