SANTA FE, United States (AFP) – Two officers “did what they could” when a teenager opened fire and killed 10 inside a Texas school, their chief said Saturday, tight-lipped about a probe into the latest US mass shooting. Friday’s massacre in the rural community of Santa Fe wounded 13 more, including a school police officer who is in critical condition.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student at the same Santa Fe High School, is being held on two charges: Aggravated assault to a public servant and capital murder, which means he could face the death penalty. The Federal Bureau of Investigation raised the number of wounded to 13, from 10 earlier. Walter Braun, chief of the Sante Fe Independent School District police, told reporters that one of his officers was in a critical but stable condition.
He and another officer had “engaged” the shooter, Braun said. “We drill all of the time with the students and staff and they’re prepared to go into action. That was reflected by the two officers that engaged him right away,” Braun said, declining to give further details. “Our officers went in there and did what they could.”
