The civil trial of a lawsuit seeking to hold the parents of a former Texas high school student, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, financially liable for a 2018 school shooting that left 10 people dead has begun. The attorney representing victims’ families, Clint McGuire, stated that the shooting was premeditated, predictable, and preventable, laying the blame on the parents for failing to address their son’s mental health crisis or limit his access to guns. Meanwhile, Pagourtzis’ parents’ attorney, Lori Laird, argued that their son’s mental illness was ultimately to blame for the tragedy.
Pagourtzis, who was 17 years old at the time of the shooting, has been charged with capital murder for killing eight students and two teachers at Santa Fe High School in May 2018. The criminal case against him has been put on hold after he was declared incompetent to stand trial and has been held in a mental health facility since 2019. McGuire told jurors that Pagourtzis’ parents were aware of signs of depression, isolation, and concerning behavior, but failed in their role as parents to intervene and prevent the tragedy.
Laird insisted that Pagourtzis’ parents were good caregivers who were unaware of their son’s struggles as Dimitrios kept his issues hidden. She also placed some of the blame on an online ammunition retailer, Lucky Gunner, for selling Pagourtzis over 100 rounds of ammunition without verifying his age. The attorney also criticized the school for not alerting Pagourtzis’ parents to concerning online searches the teenager had made related to school shootings, suicide, and weapons. Lucky Gunner reached a settlement with the families and is no longer a defendant in the lawsuit.
Roberto Torres, the attorney representing Dimitrios Pagourtzis, argued that while his client did plan the shooting, his severe mental illness left him out of control of his actions. The families of the victims are seeking at least $1 million in damages, but the jury could award a higher amount. Family members of those killed and wounded in the shooting voiced that the lawsuit was about accountability rather than money. The three-week trial is expected to shed light on the responsibility of individuals and entities in cases of mass shootings.
Similar lawsuits have been filed following other mass shootings across the United States. In a recent case, a jury awarded over $200 million to the mother of a victim in a shooting at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee. The lawsuit targeted the shooter and his father, who had allegedly returned a rifle to his son despite his mental health issues. In another case, parents Jennifer and James Crumbley were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for their involvement in a mass school shooting in Michigan. The trend of holding individuals accountable for their role in enabling such tragedies continues to grow.
