Texas town begins healing process day after high school shooting

People in the town of Santa Fe, Texas, yesterday began dealing with their sense of loss following the latest in a series of school shootings in the United States.
The town held a vigil late on Friday as the shooting set off another round of outrage in the country, where similar scenes of students running from their classrooms in terror have replayed with frequency.
Friday’s massacre in the town located about 15km south-east of Houston is the 22nd school shooting this year in which someone was injured or killed, according to a student movement that started after the last mass shooting in February.
Governor Gregg Abbott ordered flags to remain lowered through to Tuesday in a letter in which he and his wife extended their prayers for the 10 people who died.
President Donald Trump also ordered flags lowered across the US.
Most of the people killed were students.
Those identified so far were aged between 15 and 17, the Houston Chronicle reported.
One was an exchange student from Pakistan.
Also among the dead was a 67-year-old teacher’s aide.
Ten people were injured, including a school security officer and a law enforcement officer.
Some of them underwent surgery on Friday and remained in critical condition.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, a student at the school, has been charged with capital murder, meaning he could face the death penalty if found guilty.
Authorities also filed assault charges against him for the 10 injured people.
Wearing handcuffs and a green prison jumpsuit, Pagourtzis appeared in court late on Friday and requested a court-appointed lawyer, according to news reports.
He was not asked to enter a plea and was ordered to be held without bail.
The shooter, armed with a shotgun and a pistol, burst into an art class shortly after the start of school on Friday.
When he emerged, he surrendered to an officer, saying he intended to kill himself but lost the courage.
His motive wasn’t immediately clear, but Abbott said Friday that Pagourtzis wrote about his plan in journals that investigators found on his computer and mobile phone.
Authorities said Friday they had detained possible accomplices, but Pagourtzis claimed to have acted alone.
Explosive devices found in the suspect’s home and a vehicle as well as around the school caused alarm when they were discovered, but they turned out to be inoperable.
The shooting comes three months after 17 people were killed and 17 others injured at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
Survivors subsequently organised demonstrations under the banner March For Our Lives, demanding an end to school shootings and changes to gun laws.
Proposals to tighten gun laws have been put forth in Congress but blocked from becoming law by legislators citing the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, which says the right of US citizens to bear arms “shall not be infringed.”
While Abbott said the guns used in the attack were legally owned by the shooter’s father, he pledged to hold a discussion with school officials, parents, students, law enforcement officials and gun owners to seek and end to school shootings.