The 17-year-old suspect in Friday’s shooting at a Santa Fe, Texas, high school reportedly shot and killed a classmate who turned down his repeated advances, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The classmate, Shana Fisher, was the first person the shooter killed, according to Fisher’s mother.
Fisher’s mother, Sadie Rodriguez, told the Times in a private message to the paper’s Facebook page that the suspect, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, gave her daughter “4 months of problems” before Fisher rejected him in front of classmates.
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“A week later he opens fire on everyone he didn’t like,” she wrote to the newspaper. “Shana being the first one.”
Fisher did not say how she knew her daughter was targeted first. Police have not yet released a motive for the shooting or determined the order in which the victims were shot.
Police say the shooting suspect attacked the school with a .38 revolver and a shotgun, apparently taken from his father, as well as improvised explosive devices that were discovered to be “nonfunctional.” Investigators found at least one molotov cocktail in later searches of his home and vehicle.
Another person of interest, also a student, was reportedly detained and questioned by authorities.
Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas), who represents the part of Texas where the shooting took place, said at a press conference that the area would “work together” following the tragedy, likening the recovery effort to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts that the area undertook after the storm last year.
“This is the second time in eight months that we’ve gone through tragedy,” Weber said, according to the Times.
“We will pull together,” he added. “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.”