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Shooting at Santa Fe High School in Galveston County, Texas

17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, armed with a shotgun and a pistol, opened fire at a Houston-area high school Friday, May 18, killing eight students and two teachers. It was the nation’s deadliest such attack since the massacre in Florida that gave rise to a campaign by teens for gun control.

The suspected shooter, who was in custody on murder charges, also had explosive devices that were found in the school and nearby, said Gov. Greg Abbott, who called the assault “one of the most heinous attacks that we’ve ever seen in the history of Texas schools.”

Investigators offered no immediate motive for the shooting. The governor said the assailant intended to kill himself but gave up and told police that he did not have the courage to take his own life.

The deaths were all but certain to re-ignite the national debate over gun regulations, coming just three months after the Parkland, Florida, attack that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Another 13 people were wounded at the school in Santa Fe, a city of about 13,000 people roughly 30 miles southeast of Houston, the governor said. The wounded included a school police officer who was the first to confront the suspect and got shot in the arm. (AP)

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