Trial to begin in lawsuit filed against accused attacker’s parents over Texas school shooting

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A lawsuit accusing the parents of a former Texas high school student of negligence for not securing weapons he allegedly used in a 2018 shooting at his campus that killed 10 people was set to go before a jury on Wednesday.

Opening statements were expected in Galveston, Texas, in the civil trial over the lawsuit filed by family members of seven of those killed and four of the 13 people wounded in the attack at Santa Fe High School in May 2018.

Dimitrios Pagourtzis was charged with capital murder for the shooting. Pagourtzis was a 17-year-old student when authorities said he killed eight students and two teachers at the school, located about 35 miles (55 kilometers) southeast of Houston.

The now 23-year-old’s criminal trial has been on hold as he’s been declared incompetent to stand trial and has remained at the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon since December 2019.

The lawsuit is seeking to hold Pagourtzis and his parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, financially liable for the shooting. The families are pursuing at least $1 million in damages.

The lawsuit accuses Pagourtzis’ parents of knowing their son was at risk of harming himself or others. It alleges Pagourtzis had been exhibiting signs of emotional distress and violent fantasies but his parents did nothing to get him help or secure a handgun and shotgun kept at their home that he allegedly ended up using during the shooting.

“We look forward to obtaining justice for the victims of the senseless tragedy,” said Clint McGuire, an attorney representing the families of five students who were killed and two others who were injured.

Lori Laird, an attorney for Pagourtzis’ parents, did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.

In a court filing, Roberto Torres, who is representing Pagourtzis in the lawsuit, denied the allegations against his client, saying that “due to mental impairment or illness, (Pagourtzis) did not have sufficient capacity to have a reasonable degree of rational understanding of or control over his actions.”

The trial could last up to three weeks.

Family members of those killed or wounded have welcomed the start of the civil trial as they have expressed frustration that Pagourtzis’ criminal trial has been on hold for years, preventing them from having a sense of closure.

Lucky Gunner, a Tennessee-based online retailer accused of illegally selling ammunition to Pagourtzis, had also been one of the defendants in the lawsuit. But in 2023, the families settled their case against the retailer, who had been accused of failing to verify Pagourtzis’ age when he bought more than 100 rounds of ammunition on two occasions before the shooting.

Other similar lawsuits have been filed following a mass shooting.

In 2022, a jury awarded over $200 million to the mother of one of four people killed in a shooting at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee. The lawsuit had been filed against the shooter and his father, who was accused of giving back a rifle to his son before the shooting despite his son’s mental health issues.

In April, Jennifer and James Crumbley were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison by a Michigan judge after becoming the first parents convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting.