The father of the teen terrorist who gunned down his school, believes others are to blame for the incident, basically.
In an in-depth report, The Wall Street Journal said that Antonios Pagourtzis, the father of Dimitrios Pagourtzi, told the paper that his son was bullied and “I believe that’s what was behind” the shooting. “He never got into a fight with anyone. I don’t know what happened,” he said. “I hope God helps me and my family understand. We are all devastated. It would have been better if he shot me than all those kids.”
The Santa Fe Independent School District denied reports that he was bullied.
Dimitrios is being held without bond at the Galveston County Jail, after “allegedly” bursting into an art classroom Friday morning at Santa Fe High Schoo, located in Texas. Armed with a Remington shotgun and a .38 caliber pistol - according to the probable cause statement - the teen opened fire, setting off a blaze of bullets in the classroom, killing ten people, before surrendering to police.
The story paints the troubled young terrorist as a boy with angel eyes and a halo. “He looked happy and smiling,” she said. “I remember him as a young boy—nice, polite. He had been practicing dancing all these years.” She went on to add “I am very upset. I believed he was this wonderful, young guy.”
This is where things get deep. The WSJ pulled court records, which revealed that Antonios has faced criminal charges 10 times in Harris County, Texas, since the 1980s. Three of the cases led to convictions—an illegal dumping case in 2008 and two liquor-related cases from the ’80s. In the most recent case, he was charged with assault with bodily injury in 2012 however, the case was dismissed.
“I only went to grammar school. I left from my village in northern Greece when I was 12. I only had the clothes I wore and an extra pair of boots,” he told WSJ. “This country treated us well. I worked hard and became a shipowner. I had three ships, which I sold.” “Now,” he added, “our lives are shattered.”
Go figure.