Maddening testimony from the father of the Santa Fe High shooter

Late last week, the father of Dimitrios Pagourtzis testified in the civil trial concerning the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting in Santa Fe, Texas. As I discussed in my previous post, the lawsuit alleges that Pagourtzis’ parents were negligent in failing to address his mental health issues and in not properly securing the firearms used in the shooting. As I’ve given away in the headline, I found his testimony to be maddening.

The guns used in the shooting belonged to the parents of Dimitrios Pagourtzis, which consisted of one of his father’s shotguns and his mother’s .38 handgun. Again, Pagourtzis killed eight students and two teachers, with 13 others sustaining injuries. Pagourtzis himself has been ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial.

When asked by the plaintiffs’ attorney if he felt any responsibility for the shooting, Pagourtzis’ father simply answered, “No”.

Mr. Pagourtzis claimed he had no idea how his son found the one key that unlocked the gun cabinet where his mother’s .38 caliber handgun, later used in the shooting, was stored. He also confirmed that his son had taken three of his shotguns prior to the massacre, sawing off the barrels of two of them. One of these shotguns was used in the attack. When police searched their home, they found two of the modified guns in the younger Pagourtzis’ bedroom.

This was followed up by Mr. Pagourtzis testifying, “You can’t secure anything 100 percent,” and that he never talked to his son about gun safety.

You didn’t even secure the guns 50 percent. It sounds like he kept the guns in the gun cabinet, like my dad kept his tools in his tool box, just thrown in there with no real way of keeping them sorted. ‘Yeah, son. Just grab a shotgun out of the cabinet if you need it. I don’t think it’s locked. Have you seen your mom’s .38?’

Then he dropped this pearl…

“You’re trying to tell me I’m bad,” Pagourtzis said to one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers. “I tried my best.”

Did you, though? It sounds more like you couldn’t be bothered with anything, let alone your son.

When asked how many firearms he owned, Mr. Pagourtzis testified he owned 17. However, he also testified that all the guns were accounted for when he last inventoried them, six weeks before the shooting. Within that six weeks, Pagourtizis’ father is said to have lost the key to the gun cabinet.

Let’s just move past the part where any civilian needs 17 guns. This is the key to a gun cabinet we’re talking about, not a key to a storage locker you hardly ever use. You can’t just think, ‘Eh, I’m sure it’ll turn up eventually.’ This is where you keep the dischargey things that cause death, not your collection of Barry Manilow 8-track tapes.

After giving his testimony, Mr. Pagourtzis spoke with a Greek TV station, where he played the bullying card before claiming he didn’t see any indication that something was wrong with his son.

Again, when your son’s hobby is Columbine, and regularly dresses as one of the shooters, that might explain any perceived bullying.

I’m having a hard time telling if Dimitrios Pagourtzis’ father is apathetic, entitled, evil, or all three.

(Sources)