Teen laid out Texas attack plans in journals, officials say

SANTA FE, Texas: The Texas student charged in the shooting at Santa Fe High School described planning the attack in private journals, including a plan to kill himself, posted an image on Facebook of a "Born to Kill'' shirt and used his father's shotgun and pistol in the rampage that left 10 dead and 10 wounded, authorities said on Friday.

A motive wasn't immediately clear, but Gov. Greg Abbott said Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, wrote about planning the attack in journals on his computer and in his cellphone that police obtained. That was inconsistent with the portrait painted by his friends: a reserved young man, an athlete who had discussed wanting to own guns but didn't talk of killing people.

It may have been what Pagourtzis hoped would happen, as according to an affidavit filed Friday when he was charged with capital murder, he told investigators that he didn't shoot students he liked "so he could have his story told.''

"Not only did he want to commit the shooting but he wanted to commit suicide after the shooting,'' Abbott said, adding that Pagourtzis told authorities he "didn't have the courage'' to take his own life.

Pagourtzis was held without bond in the Galveston County jail on the capital murder charges, said the county sheriff, Henry Trochesset. Abbott said the two guns used in the attack were owned legally by his father. It was not clear whether the father knew his son had taken them. The governor also said explosive devices including a Molotov cocktail had been found in the suspected shooter's home and a vehicle as well as around the school and nearby.

Abbott said at a news conference that ``unlike Parkland, unlike Sutherland Springs, there were not those types of warning signs.'' He was referring to the Feb 14 school shooting in Florida and one in November inside a church in a town near San Antonio. Abbott said the early investigation showed no prior criminal history for Pagourtzis no arrests and no confrontations with law enforcement.

That same Facebook profile that included pictures of the "Born to Kill'' shirt which one classmate told The New York Times that Pagourtzis was wearing Friday, described Pagourtzis as planning to enter the U.S. Marine Corps next year. But the Marine Corps told The Associated Press it has reviewed its records and found no one by that name as either a recruit or a person in their delayed entry pool.

A woman who answered the phone at a number associated with the Pagourtzis family declined to speak with the AP.

"Please don't call us. Give us our time right now, thank you,'' she said.

Classmates described Pagourtzis as quiet, an avid video game player who routinely wore a black trench coat and black boots to class. He had played football on the school's junior varsity squad and danced as part of a church group. Those who know him expressed shock he might be involved in the killings.