Posted on 05/22/2018 1:58:45 PM PDT by Simon Green
There’s a new wrinkle in the aftermath of the shooting at Santa Fe High School on Friday. The family of the shooter, the boy who killed 10 people, are speaking out. They’re claiming that their son, the one who shot his classmates and teachers, should be seen as a victim. They claim the boy was bullied and “mistreated” by his classmates.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, is being held on capital murder charges. Pagourtzis has admitted to killing 8 students and two teachers. The shotgun and .38 revolver he brought to campus both belonged to his father.
That man, Antonios Pagourtzis, is now making statements. He says his son was a ‘good boy’ and that he must have been bullied.
“My son, to me, is not a criminal, he’s a victim,” Antonios Pagourtzis, who immigrated to the U.S. from Greece, reportedly told Greece’s Antenna TV. “The kid didn’t own guns, I owned guns.”
“He pulled the trigger but he is not this person,” he said.
“It is like we see in the movies when someone gets into his body and does things that are not done. It’s not possible in one day for the child to have changed so much.”
Pagourtzis said his son never displayed any signs that he would be capable of such violence, explaining that he didn’t fight with others, didn’t drink alcohol and seemed to enjoy healthy pursuits such as working out.
Pagourtzis also spoke with the Wall Street Journal. He told them that his son was “mistreated at school” and “that’s what was behind” the carnage.
“He never got into a fight with anyone. I don’t know what happened,” he said.
“Somebody probably came and hurt him, and since he was a solid boy, I don’t know what could have happened. I can’t say what happened. All I can say is what I suspect as a father.”
“I hope God helps me and my family understand. We are all devastated. It would have been better if he shot me than all those kids.”
“I have guns. I am a hunter and had a farm which I rented in the 1980s,” he said. “The guns in my house are legal and declared.”
Antonios Pagourtzis and his wife were allowed to visit their son in prison for 15 minutes.
“I saw the child. I didn’t see a child who is a murderer. A pure child, a child who was ashamed to look me in the face,” Pagourtzis said.
“He was thinking of his sisters, how his sisters will be able to get about. He said he loves me, he told his mother he loves her and he will try to be strong to help us cope.”
It was during this visit that the younger Pagourtzis reportedly told his parents that he had spared “the kids who were the good kids so they can tell his story.”
Pagourtzis will have his story told. Much of what’s known about the incident will become public during the sentencing, if not before.
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He deserves an F on life in general!
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I was always on the small side and got bullied when I was a little kid. I got so mad in third grade, I literally saw red—like a visor coming down across my eyes. I then attacked half the boys in my class and didn’t realize what I was doing until I had slapped a nun. That kinda stopped the bullying, but we still had occasional fights.
In sixth grade, I got in a huge fight with a boy half again my size and we ended up best friends. We all had access to weapons—carried pocket and throwing knives to school and had rifles and shotguns in our cars by high school, but no one thought about killing one another.
GTFO my country ...
Hey Pops, did you ever happen to tell the kid what happens to young white falla’s in American prisons?
Bet not eh?
The parents of these monsters have the responsibility to control them, not the tens of millions of freedom loving Americans gun owners.
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>> “I recall a young man around 14 that came back from a mission stint with his parents.” <<
OK, the church I attended as a kid sent out four families to missions in Brazil, Peru, and the Phillipines.
Their children, in my age group, came back socially adept, better educated (by their parents) than anyone else our age in the church, and all earned multiple advanced post-secondary degrees.
All but one of them achieved professorships in colleges.
They in no way were socially disabled, and spoke several languages besides their native English.
Lets not blame the mission field for anything!
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Just a family twisting things to try to get their son off when he has committed a horrible offense and killed ten people. The kid is a slob and what the father says has no relevance.
There are obviously work-arounds, but in the case I addressed, that kid was betrayed by his parents. They brought him serious problems.
I have no issue with working in the mission field, but if your kid(s) are going to suffer, you need to take action to prevent it, or go back home.
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I agree.
They may not have been properly qualified for the mission.
They raised a snowflake...one that had a meltdown. This support is exactly why he’s a snowflake, they were never hard on him. He didn’t have the tools to handle “mistreatment” but had access to guns.
I think all this coddling, throughout the school system and by this generation of parents, is what is causing these kids to snap. Their rage is x10 because they’re snowflakes.
It does take a bit of training. Perhaps they weren’t prepped with regard to all that they would encounter from a family perspective.
I’ve known others who worked in the mission field for years, and their family didn’t have this sort of a problem.
Thanks for the response.
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To take children to a different culture, the parents have to be sufficiently educated to educate their children.
If the parents have issues, the kids will have them doubled.
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The current generation of parents are in need of Parenting themselves.
Not much of a father Antonios. Your son is a murderer. Wake up.
Peter - I was bullied also as a kid. Some major stuff! But the Christian in me told me to forgive.
Seems you are lacking somewhere...
“The current generation of parents are in need of Parenting themselves.”
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Stop it——qualifying that statement with the phrase “Some of the current generation——” would make more sense.
My kids are among the current generation of parents and they had great kids who are now very nice young men and women.
I agree.
From my viewpoint, you need to have some pretty level-headed people participate in these programs.
Not trying to be a total downer on all this, but I do think there is perhaps too large a contingent of “Pie in the Sky” type folks who are not well grounded that participate.
You may know more about it than I do. I don’t pretend to have special insight on who actually participates. I just think there are a lot of young people who get caught up in noble ideas, and they might not be as grounded as might be best.
And now we know what was wrong with the kid.
You win the prize ...
I see a lot of posts here that are saying the same thing.
Daddy believes in the Culture of Victimhood and apparently passed the idea on to his kid. And who came up with that philosophy? Liberals. Progressives.
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