Dimitrios Pagourtzis killed eight children and two adults and wounded over a dozen others at the high school near Galveston in May 2018, when he was 17 years old, authorities said.
Survivors and family members of those who were gunned down sued Pagourtzis’ parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, accusing them of failing to properly secure the family’s firearms and failing to act on their son’s declining mental state leading up to the shooting.
“Parents of a depressed child should safely store their guns,” plaintiffs’ attorney Clint McGuire said in opening statements. “If they don’t, and their child commits a school shooting with them, the parents share in the responsibility for those harms and losses.”
The parents testified they didn’t see any warning signs ahead of the shooting, and their attorney argued they could not be held liable for the son’s actions.
“The parents didn’t pull the trigger,” attorney Lori Laird said. “The parents didn’t give him a gun.”
The plaintiffs include family members of six of the eight slain students and the family of a slain teacher, along with four survivors injured in the shooting. The shotgun and handgun used in the shooting were both legally owned by Dimitrios Pagourtzis’ parents.
The trial included emotional testimony from victims and their families, as well as Pagourtzis’ family members.
The shooter’s father testified he didn’t realize his son was severely depressed. “Sometimes it takes years to recognize that your kid’s sick,” Pagourtzis said.
He acknowledged he did not teach his son about gun safety, but he said keeping more than a dozen weapons locked in a display cabinet and a gun safe should have been sufficient.
The parents have not been charged with any crime. The criminal trial of Dimitrios Pagourtzis – who was 17 at the time of the shooting that killed 10 and wounded 13 – was delayed indefinitely after a judge found him mentally incompetent.
