DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Multiple fatalities reported after shooting at high school in Texas; shooter arrested

We can turn the whole world into a prison and it will never solve the real problem behind many of these attacks.

Paul Ryan?



Well let's actually be 100% correct, shall we?

MS-13 was established in Los Angeles by people of Latin American descent.

But speaking of leaders, that's nothing close to what your leader is saying. And nothing close to what you were saying until you were called on it.

On tv the other day there was a shrink talking about the difficulties of teenage boys becoming men in today's world.
Teen boys tend to act out when they are unsure of themselves.
Many don't have a man to discuss these things with while most have just spent years living the fantasy of the internet and electronic games.

He said that the strange kid who shot up the last school in Florida is receiving marriage proposals and girls send him
naked pictures of themselves while he is in prison.
Teen boys who are uncomfortable around girls find this to be cool.

Now this shooter does it one better than the guy who used the AR15, he uses guns and bombs. He steps it up on the cool ladder.

Our Society is broken.

Didn't you make a thread about how cool it was that a rapist war criminal killed himself instead of serving a life sentence?

But yeah, toxic masculinity is bad.

You should leave that kind of talk to your master.

lol okurr, rapist worshipper.

Serious talk..

I am big on national defense, but maybe we need to scuttle a planned aircraft carrier or order a few less f-15's and harden our schools.

How does someone walk in with a shotgun and pressure cooker bombs undetected? It's crazy.

Here are a few thoughts.

1. Require every parent with a student in the school to spend 1-2 days a year watching all the doors. Doors that are locked. Give them radios to radio the resource officer about suspicious activity. Something tells me these goofs aren't walking in the main gate. On any given day you might have 20 more adults in the building watching doors and halls.

2. Just like jury duty, pass a law requiring employers to pay the parents and not dock them vacation/sick time.

3. Bolster all doors in every school and classroom. Solid metal doors that can't easily be kicked in.

4. Have 2 officers in every school.

Look, we need to protect our kids from these copycat goofs. This last shooting was with what would be called non- assault type weapons

Calling for weapon bans is foolish. It's time to find actual solutions that can make a big difference.

On a societal note, maybe it's time we got away from talking to's and time outs. How many kids walk away from those thinking they don't want that to happen again? I think we need to get back to having them assume the position and feel the pain. Kids do walk away from that thinking they don't want that to happen again.

How do you tell the parent that works 9-5 or 9-6 every weekday that they have to take a day away from work to watch the door?

I think that once we are working on the door of the schools, we are too late.

Did you read my post? I said that employers would be required by law, just as with jury duty that the parents would be paid without getting docked vacation or sick time.


So if you don't want to harden the schools, you aren't in favor of preventing things like this? Sounds like it.

I am interested in fighting the core problems that cause these attacks.

I firmly believe that if someone wants to kill a bunch of other people, without regard to whether or not they themselves live or die, they'll find a way to do it.

Parent at the door? Easy. Shoot the parent on the way in. Problem solved for the shooter. There are always ways for someone intent on harming others to do so. I can probably think of half a dozen right off the top of my head ... ways that no amount of "hardening" will prevent. We have to get kids more invested in being part of their families, schools, churches, and communities, instead of allowing the social isolation to many kids today feel, to spread and expand.

Dimitrios Pagourtzis: What we know about Texas shooting suspect

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44173960

He was in a church dance club. He played on the school football team. He was a high-achieving student. And yet he allegedly opened fire on classmates, killing 10 people.

Officials say there were few red flags from Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the 17-year-old facing capital murder charges over Friday's Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said a photo on the suspect's now-deleted Facebook page showing a T-shirt with the phrase Born to Kill may be the only warning sign.

"But as far as investigations by law enforcement agencies, as far as arrests or confrontation with law enforcement, as far as having a criminal history, he has none," he told a news conference.

"His slate is pretty clean. There simply were not the same type of warning signs that we've seen in so many other shootings."

However, hours before he allegedly stormed into an art class armed with a shotgun and revolver the teenager made a weird post on social media, a law enforcement source told CBS News.

Accompanied by an occult symbol, it said simply, "Dangerous Days".

He had also previously posted an image of a trench coat pinned with various insignia, including the Iron Cross used by the Nazis, which the teen wrote represented "bravery".

The Communist hammer and sickle pin, he said, stood for "rebellion", and a depiction of the idol Baphomet symbolised "Evil".

Student Dustin Severin told KPRC-TV that he saw the teen in the hall before the shooting wearing his usual outfit of black boots and a trench coat.

He said the suspect had been picked on by school coaches "for smelling bad", and had mostly kept to himself.

One of his teachers told the New York Times: "He was quiet, but he wasn't quiet in a creepy way."

Police say the teenager detailed his plans to carry out the school shooting in a diary, on his computer and on a mobile phone.

The suspect had planned to take his own life, say investigators, but he ultimately gave himself up.

And yet there were many other signs that Dimitrios Pagourtzis was a regular, outgoing teenager full of promise.

School officials say he was previously on the school's "honour roll" of high-achievers, and was expected to graduate in 2019.

According to local media, he was a member of a dance squad with a local Greek Orthodox church.

He had also played for the Santa Fe High School Indians American football team for the 2015-16 season.

Such wholesome extracurricular activities only add more emphasis to the question bewildered members of his community are asking in the aftermath of the rampage:

Why?

I'm done - you clearly didn't read what I posted.

Texas school shooting suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis hid firearms under long coat

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati...tzis/623438002/

SANTA FE, Texas —The 17-year-old suspect in Friday's Texas high school mass shooting wore a long coat to get his firearms into the school without anyone noticing and sketched out plans for the grisly attack ahead of time in his journal and on a home computer, authorities said.

Law enforcement officials took Dimitrios Pagourtzis into custody soon after he carried out the attack and say he is the sole gunman responsible for the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School that left at least 10 dead and 10 more wounded, according to police and prosecutors. He was charged with capital murder and aggravated assault of a peace officer.

The suspect appeared before a judge in Galveston for an initial court appearance where the charges were formally read. Pagourtzis asked to be represented by a public defender. The suspect admitted to the shootings and told officers he targeted students he didn't like, according to a probable cause affidavit.

It’s not USA TODAY’s policy to identify minors charged with crimes. Due to the magnitude of the event and the fact the suspect has been charged as an adult, USA TODAY has decided to identify the suspect.

Gov. Greg Abbott said the shooter told investigators that he wanted to commit suicide after carrying out the shooting in a high school art room and had detailed his planning for the attack on his computer and in journals.

He added the gunman used two weapons in the attack, a shotgun and .38 revolver. Both of the firearms were legally owned by the gunman's father. Abbott said it was not yet clear if the father knew that the suspect had possession of the firearms.

The shooter apparently was able to hide the weapons under a long coat, or trench coat, he wore into school despite temperatures that hovered around 90 degrees, officials said.

"He gave himself up and admitted that he didn't have the courage to commit the suicide," Abbott said.

The incident comes two weeks before the school was set to hold graduation and as students prepared for final exams

Police said suspected explosive devices were also found on campus and off campus in the aftermath of the shooting.

Abbott described some of explosive devices found as a CO2 device and a Molotov cocktail. The governor added that it appeared the devices were assembled by the shooter and that investigators have not yet uncovered any information that would suggest that the suspect received help in building the explosives.

Abbott said authorities were speaking to two additional people of interest about the incident.

"One is a person who was at the scene," Abbott said. "We cannot definitively say whether or not that this is a person that may have had some level of involvement in the crime. There was just some suspicious reactions from this particular person and we want to make sure this person is adequately investigated. Separate from that, there is another person where we have certain information (and) we want to make sure that this other person is going to be fully interviewed to see if there is information to be gleaned."

Pagourtzis played defensive tackle on the Santa Fe High School junior varsity football team, and was a member of a dance squad with a local Greek Orthodox church. In a recap on the high school web site of an October 2016 Santa Fe High JV game, Pagourtzis was among players credited with playing "a huge role" in stopping the Ball High School's JV running game in a 14-0 victory.

Social media accounts that law enforcement officials confirmed belonged to Pagourtzis but were taken down in the aftermath of the incident featured photos of firearms, a knife, and a custom-made T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Born to Kill." He also posted a photo of a coat that included the Iron Cross insignia.

Abbott said that law enforcement officials have obtained warrants to search two residents associated with the suspect as well as a vehicle. On Friday afternoon, a column of law enforcement vehicles clogged the road leading to the shooter's home in nearby Alvin as investigators continued their search of the property

Nine of the victims killed were students and one was a teacher. Hospital officials said among those injured was a school resource officer, one of two officers regularly assigned to the school. Hospital officials also described another person injured as a middle-aged woman who was a staff member at the school.

In addition to the dead, several injured victims were transported to area hospitals.

In the aftermath of the shooting, students had varying recollection of what happened. Some students said they heard a fire alarm activated before the sound of gunshots echoed through the school hallways. Others said that they didn’t hear the fire alarm activated until after the shooting began.

Some students didn't know it was a shooting until they got outside.

"Next thing you know, everybody looks and you hear 'boom, boom, boom, and I just ran as fast as I could to the nearest forest so I can hide and I called my mom," 10th grader Dakota Shrader emotionally explained with her mom by her side Friday morning.

Grace Johnson, 18, a senior and who is the chaplain for the school band, told CNN that she and several of her classmates huddled in a classroom as they heard the sound of gunfire.

“We were hearing gunshots and many kids were having panic attacks,” Johnson said. “We sat in a circle and prayed for all of our peers and that they were going to be all right. We prayed for whoever was doing this that something changes in them.”

The FBI, ATF, Texas Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies all all investigating the incident.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that the high school was one of dozens in the state that had received recently a safety award for its security planning.

He said that the incident suggests that it might be time for schools to limit the entrances and exits that student and staff can use and stagger start times to make it easier for school resources officers to secure a school.

"There aren't enough people to put a guard at every entrance and exit," Patrick said. "If we can protect a large office building or a courthouse or any major facility than maybe we need to look at limiting the entrances and the exits into our schools."

13 Mass Killings Where No Guns Were Involved

https://ijr.com/2015/12/487774-13-mass-killings-where-no-guns-were-involved/

However, such gun control measures would have had no impact on these thirteen mass killing incidents, which utilized:

1. Knives - 31 dead

On March 1, 2014, several men armed with long knives converged on a train station in Kunming, China, and stabbed 31 people to death while injuring hundreds more. Police attributed the attack to Uighur separatist forces from Xinjiang province.

2. Machetes - 500 dead

In one of the bloodiest massacres in Nigerian history, more than 500 Christians were butchered near the city of Jos by machete-wielding Muslims in March of 2010. The attack, which didn't spare toddlers or infants, was reportedly in reprisal for Christian attacks on Muslims two months earlier.

3. A samurai sword and a baseball bat - 4 dead

Because Jae Hwan Shim (pictured above) was apparently angry with his ex-wife for dating another man, he and an accomplice raided a home in Quartz Hill, California, in June of 2008 and used a samurai sword and baseball bat to kill the woman, two of their children, and a relative before setting the house on fire.

This year, Kim pled guilty to the murders and avoided the death penalty by leading investigators to the remains of his ex-wife's boyfriend in Mexico.

4. Passenger airliners - 2,996 dead

394261 14: A fiery blasts rocks the World Trade Center after being hit by two planes September 11, 2001 in New York City.

Osama bin Laden ultimately claimed responsibility for the hijacking of four passenger airliners by 19 terrorists that cost nearly 3,000 lives and injured another 6,000 on September 11, 2001. Two planes struck the two 110- story World Trade Center towers, a third hit the Pentagon, and the fourth was downed in a Pennsylvania field before it could reach its intended target in Washington, D.C., when passengers aboard the plane attacked the hijackers.

Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011, by U.S. special forces after an almost decade-long manhunt.

5. An axe handle - 6 dead

Two families in neighboring homes were murdered in their beds in Colorado Springs in September of 1911. The murderer used an axe handle to kill a man, his wife, and their one-year-old son; and then did the same to another woman, her six-year-old daughter, and her three-year-old son. To this day, the crime has not been solved.

6. Poisoned grape drink - 912 dead

Before the 9/11 attacks, the deadliest single non-natural disaster in American history occurred on November 18, 1978, in Guyana.

That's when Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones ordered 912 (mostly American) men, women, and children to drink Grape Flavor-Aid laced with cyanide and Valium.

7. A pipe bomb - 22 dead

Though pipe bombs failed to detonate in the San Bernardino incident, one such device did explode at a Hindu shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, in August. A total of 22 people were killed.

A man taken into custody 12 days after the blast eventually confessed to the crime, which was apparently in retaliation for a government crackdown on human trafficking gangs.

8. Pressure cooker bombs - 3 dead

Items and crosses decorate a makeshift memorial April 20, 2013 on Boylston Street, near the scene of Boston Marathon explosions as people get back to the normal life the morning after after the capture of the second of two suspects wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings. Thousands of heavily armed police staged an intense manhunt Friday for a Chechen teenager suspected in the Boston marathon bombings with his brother, who was killed in a shootout. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, defied the massive force after his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan was shot and suffered critical injuries from explosives believed to have been strapped to his body.

On April 15, 2013, Chechen brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev detonated two bombs made from pressure cookers near the finish line of the 117th annual Boston Marathon. Three people were killed and another 264 were injured, with 14 of them requiring amputations.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout with police after a four-day manhunt. His brother Dzhokhar was arrested later that day. On June 24, 2015, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death after having been found guilty of all 30 charges against him.

9. A truck bomb - 168 dead

Timothy McVeigh used fuel oil and fertilizer to build the Ryder truck bomb that exploded in front of a federal building in Oklahoma City in April of 1995.

A total of 168 people perished in what was then the deadliest terror attack on American soil.

10. Dynamite - 45 dead

The Sandy Hook massacre was not the largest mass murder at an American school. That occurred way back on May 18, 1927, at the Bath Consolidated School in Michigan.

The school's caretaker was apparently angry about property taxes; so he placed dynamite at numerous spots around the school over a period of months and then set a timer for the explosion to occur during classes. A total of 45 people died that day in Bath Township.

11. Gasoline and two matches - 87 dead

That was all Julio Gonzalez (pictured above) needed to set the Happy Land social club in Brooklyn on fire in March of 1990. After starting the fire near the entrance, he pulled down the metal gate and left 87 people inside to burn or suffocate to death within minutes.

The reason? Gonzalez had gotten into a heated argument earlier that evening with his girlfriend, who was checking coats inside the club.

12. Gasoline and a lighter - 133 dead

On February 18, 2003, a 56-year-old unemployed taxi driver boarded a subway train in Daegu, South Korea, with the intention of killing himself.

But when he emptied two cartons of gasoline and dropped his lighter, the fire spread quickly throughout the train and onto a neighboring train. The death toll of 133 was largely due to a lack of fire safety equipment or measures on the trains.

13. Sarin gas - 13 dead

Several members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult released sarin gas on numerous lines of the Tokyo subway on March 20, 1995.

Thirteen people died, though the death toll could have been in the thousands had the gas been released differently. However, many of those injured continue to suffer physical problems to this day.

haha, further proof

The NUT is the answer!.

Japan knife attack: At least 19 dead - CNN - CNN.com
https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/world/japan-knife-attack-deaths/index.html

Jul 26, 2016 - Japan knife attack: At least 19 dead .... for disabled people west of Tokyo, making it one of Japan's deadliest mass killings since World War II.


Knife-wielding attackers kill 29 at China train station - CNN - CNN.com
https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/01/world/asia/china-railway-attack/index.html

Mar 2, 2014 - At least 28 people were killed and 113 others were wounded in a knife attack in a railway ... Mass knife attacks are not unprecedented in China.

I don't disagree with that, in the mean time....ahhh

Social isolation... When we grew up without all the electronic gadgetry we were more socially isolated than almost anyone today. There were bullies and every other type of kid then too; but we didn't take guns to school for mass killings.

I think there is a social breakdown here too, and it's more to do with kids not being properly disciplined. You must learn right from wrong and what acts are unthinkable, else anything seems like a good idea.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-texas-shooter-20180519-story.html

Texas school shooter killed girl who turned down his advances and embarrassed him in class, her mother says
By MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE, MATT PEARCE and JENNY JARVIE
MAY 19, 2018 | 5:15 PM
SANTA FE, TEXAS

Texas school shooter killed girl who turned down his advances and embarrassed him in class, her mother says
Lucy Gonzales of League City, Texas, carries flowers, a sign and balloons outside Santa Fe High School on Saturday, May 19, 2018. Students and teachers were allowed back to parts of the school to retrieve their belongings. (Stuart Villanueva / Associated Press)

As he heard the gunshots approaching down the hall Friday morning, Santa Fe High School student Abel San Miguel, 15, hid with a few classmates in the art class storage closet.

He wasn't sure if he was going to survive. Through the door, he could see the barrel of a shotgun. Then the shooter began shooting through the door, killing at least one student inside, and grazing Abel's back.

ADVERTISEMENT

When the shooter left the room briefly, Abel and others left the closet and tried to barricade the door. But the shooter pushed it open, spotted a student he knew, and with anger said, "Surprise!" before shooting the student in the chest.

"I'm still trying to process everything," Abel said in an interview.


As more details emerged about the shooting that left 10 people dead and 13 injured at the Houston-area school, the student who authorities said confessed to the attack was being held in isolation Saturday as officials identified the victims.

The family of the 17-year-old suspect, junior Dimitrios Pagourtzis, is "as shocked and confused as anyone else by these events that occurred," according to a statement released to the media.

"We are gratified by the public comments made by other Santa Fe High School students that show Dimitri as we know him: a smart, quiet, sweet boy," the family statement said. "While we remain mostly in the dark about the specifics of yesterday's tragedy, what we have learned from media reports seems incompatible with the boy we love."

One of Pagourtzis' classmates who died in the attack, Shana Fisher, "had 4 months of problems from this boy," her mother, Sadie Rodriguez, wrote in a private message to the Los Angeles Times on Facebook. "He kept making advances on her and she repeatedly told him no."


Pagourtzis continued to get more aggressive, and she finally stood up to him and embarrassed him in class, Rodriguez said. "A week later he opens fire on everyone he didn't like," she wrote. "Shana being the first one." Rodriguez didn't say how she knew her daughter was the first victim.

The gunman repeatedly taunted students during the attack, according to another harrowing account posted to Facebook by one survivor's mother.

After scrambling to escape the shooter's blasts in the art room, Isabelle Van Ness, covered in dust from rounds hitting her classroom walls, could hear the shooter in a next-door classroom yelling, "Woo hoo!" while shooting, according to her mother, Deedra Van Ness.

"The gunman then comes back into their room and they hear him saying … are you dead? Then more shots are fired," Deedra Van Ness wrote. "By this time, cell phones all over the classroom are ringing and he's taunting the kids in the closet asking them … do you think it's for you? do you want to come answer it? Then he proceeds to fire more bullets into the closet and tries to get in."

Police arrived within 10 minutes later as Isabelle hid among the bodies of her classmates, and she could hear the shooter reloading after an "exchange" with police, her mother wrote.

Soon after, the shooter surrendered. "She and her friends had been in the same room with the gunman the ENTIRE TIME," her mother wrote. "As the media announces the names of the confirmed dead, Isabelle falls apart. ... She had prayed that her friends lying around the school were just injured and the confirmation of their deaths was crushing."

The dead included two teachers, Glenda Perkins and Cynthia Tisdale, along with Shana Fisher and seven of her classmates: Kimberly Vaughan, Angelique Ramirez, Christian Riley Garcia, Jared Black, Christopher Jake Stone, Aaron Kyle McLeod and Sabika Sheikh, an exchange student from Pakistan.

Two bombs that Pagourtzis allegedly brought to the school Friday were "intended to be IEDs," improvised explosive devices, but turned out to be "nonfunctional," Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said Saturday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Pagourtzis, a football player who had allegedly posted images of guns and a T-shirt with the words "Born to kill" on social media in the weeks before the shooting, is being held without bond while facing charges of capital murder and aggravated assault on a public servant.

His schoolmates were allowed to return to parts of the school Saturday to retrieve their abandoned belongings.

One student wrote on Twitter: "as i walked into the school today to grab my things all I felt was emptiness. the entire vibe of the school was sad. you could look at the doors and see where they had to use [sledge]hammers to get into the doors. … i never want to be there again."

After surrendering to police at the school, Pagourtzis waived his right to remain silent and confessed to the shooting, authorities said. According to a probable-cause statement, Pagourtzis said that "he did not shoot students he did like so he could have his story told."

The judge questioned the teenager at his initial court appearance Friday. Pagourtzis answered the questions, admitting to the shooting, but said little else, Henry said.

Officials also upped the number of injured at Friday's shooting to 13 from 10. One of the wounded, school police Officer John Barnes, remained in critical but stable condition Saturday after nearly dying from blood loss, according to police officials.

"This guy ran toward danger. I can't thank him enough," Henry said in an interview. "He's a hero in my book."

A close friend, Capt. James Dale of the Houston Police Department, said Barnes might lose his right arm.

"We want to know exactly what went on in there," Dale said. "All we know is he was the first one in there and he was shot in both arms."

Walter Braun, chief of the Santa Fe Independent School District Police Department, declined to answer questions about the police response to the shooting or whether the department had seen any warning signs from Pagourtzis before the massacre.

"Our officers went in there and did what they could," Braun said at a news conference. "They did what they were trained for, and went in immediately."

Though the school is now believed to be free of explosives, all district schools will remain closed until at least Tuesday as officials sort through the crime scene.

Officers have been bringing in students 10 at a time to gather belongings from parts of the school that were not closed off, Braun said.

With assistance from the Red Cross, officials have set up an assistance center at a local Methodist church where affected families can receive emotional support, community services and food.

"This is the second time in eight months that we've gone through tragedy," Rep. Randy Weber, the area's Republican congressman, said at a news conference, noting Hurricane Harvey's assault on the area last summer.

"We will pull together," Weber said. "We will grieve together, we will love one another, we will work together. We did it after Harvey, still doing it after Harvey. We'll do it after this."

From the above post....just remember that police are 10 minutes away when seconds count.

It also sounds as if we banned BF/GF relationships and the the pursuit of them in HS this coukd have been avoided. No dating till 21!!!

I agree. That is why i mentioned maybe a little less talk and a little more bending over for the pain.

A 16 year old was just shot and killed inside a courtroom in Columbus.

Maybe so...what's your point?


No doubt hardening the schools is a good first step.

He didn't get through security. A sheriff shot him dead inside the back of a courtroom.

Well, I'm not sure it's an assured good step. I've seen a lot of people in this thread say that schools should have one entrance and a metal detector in every school. Well that is an idea, but logistically how would that work? Do the kids have to show up two hours earlier like they would at the airport? What happens when there is a fire? "Hardening" schools is a convenient way to make schools safer, but it doesn't work in reality.

Ya ... just like the wall won’t work ... ...

Its ONE STEP in the solution ... dude walked into school with a long coat and his rifle under that ...

MAYBE one entry with a metal detector would have stopped that ...

We’d have to figure the logistics out ... were smart enough to create AI robots so i’m Pretty sure we can figure this up logistically ...

Not sure what you solution is ... what i do know is your good at crapping on others ideas .... thats a special talent ... ...

how are people talking about MS 13 in this thread when its clearly another crazy white boy shooting up a school?

sup with you guys shooting up places just because some chick doesn't want to date you?

no means no. out here shooting up schools, raping chicks behind trash cans, running over people on the side of the road drunk.

white people always talking about the black community and no fathers in the households, yet here yall are with both parents present and yall kids still out of control.

smh.

now i see why white people put their kids on leashes. yall talk about parenting but cant parent worth a damn. kids run all over yall, out here acting up in public, and yall go "come on little timmy, imma count to 10, and if you dont stop, you wont get any ice cream!!"

j/c

Houston Texans’ J.J. Watt to pay for funerals of Santa Fe shooting victims

Houston Texans star defensive end J.J. Watt told officials at Santa Fe High School that he will pay funeral costs for the victims of Friday’s mass shooting, according to multiple reports.

A 17-year-old student killed 10 people, mostly students, in Friday’s shooting about 30 miles outside Houston, before surrendering to officers, officials said. Ten more were wounded.

Watt, among the most prominent professional athletes in Houston, tweeted a two-word response to the carnage: “Absolutely horrific.” But his response went beyond a tweet, with reports late Friday that he would pay for the victims’ funerals. The team confirmed Watt’s intention, according to ESPN and other outlets.

The Texans also released a statement after Friday’s shooting, offering “our thoughts and heartfelt condolences to the victims, their families and all those affected.”

Other Houston athletes also weighed in on the tragedy, in what’s become a numbingly familiar routine.

“We need to do better by our children,” wrote Rockets star guard Chris Paul, who told reporters that his team’s NBA playoff series against the Golden State Warriors “is minor compared to what is taking place down in Santa Fe.” The family of Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta released a statement, which read in part, “There are no words that we can say that will take the sadness of this day away or provide any deeper understanding for this senseless tragedy. These children and the teacher that were lost, their families and the entire Santa Fe Community will remain heavy on our hearts and deep within our prayers today and in the days ahead.” Guard Eric Gordon called it “a horrible act of violence.”

Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who has been outspoken in his calls for gun control, tweeted Friday that “gun owners have a responsibility to store their firearms securely. The two guns used in Friday’s shooting belong to the gunman’s father, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

The Astros held a moment of silence before Friday night’s game and flew the Texas state flags at half-staff, while Astros manager A.J. Hinch offered an impassioned speech on the issue of school shootings, telling reporters he “doesn’t want to offer any more condolences” and that the rash of violence “makes me angry.”

“Lives are being lost for no real, good reason,” Hinch said Friday, via the Houston Chronicle. “There’s never a good reason. My anger is because I have kids and I can appreciate how terrible everyone has to feel. … I don’t have the words. I’m here in front of a bunch of cameras trying to make people feel better when I don’t think the situation should ever happen. There’s no reason for our schools to be combat zones. And it’s turning that way.”

Watt’s gesture, meanwhile, comes several months after he was named the NFL’s 2017 Walter Payton Man of the Year, the league’s top community service honor. He had launched a campaign to raise $200,000 for Hurricane Harvey relief last summer, which turned viral and eventually raised more than $37 million in three weeks.

“This award is about the inherent good that lies within humanity,” Watt said in February, when he accepted the award. “It’s about the city of Houston and its ability to overcome adversity at a time when it all seemed lost. It is about the hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country and all over the world who donated to a city they may have never been to, to people that they may never meet. But they donated simply because they saw their fellow humans going through a difficult time and they wanted to help out.”

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who contributed $1 million to Watt’s Harvey campaign on behalf of Walmart, thanked the defensive end “for going above and beyond for the families of Santa Fe, Texas. I love you,” she wrote.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/05/19/jj-watt-santa-fe-shooting-victims/

[quote]how are people talking about MS 13 in this thread when its clearly another crazy white boy shooting up a school?[quote]

MS-13 is the latest boogeyman for places like Stormfront or Breitbart.

All white people can’t parent ... thanks for opening my eyes to that ....

YOUR THE BEST ... so level headed and rational ... what a deep thinker u are ... *applause* ...

Please help us .. maybe u can write a guide and teach us white folk how to raise our kids especially since NONE OF US KNOW HOW ...

If u do ... heres a big ole thank U from ALL WHITE PEOPLE and ESPECIALLY THEIR KIDS!!!

I guess they couldn't get the drugs the crazy black man Bill Cosby used to RAPE ALL THOSE WOMEN...No means No.

I like how they call MS13 'Latin American' or 'mexican'.

At best it's a red herring. I'm guilty of getting caught up in them too, but we should do our best to keep to the topic at hand. Especially when people would prefer to misdirect the conversation.

Thought this was sobering, more kids killed by shooters than military members:


source

When will we say enough is enough? When will we be willing to make the hard choices to curb this epidemic? I'm pessimistic that we can solve it in my lifetime but I would love to be wrong.