
Parents of Texas high school shooter found not liable for negligence in civil trial
CNN
A Texas jury found the parents of a school shooter not liable for negligence on Monday in a civil trial brought in connection with the 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School.
A Texas jury found the parents of a school shooter not liable for negligence on Monday in a civil trial brought in connection with the 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School. However, the jury found gunman Dimitrios Pagourtzis liable and awarded the plaintiffs more than $300 million. Dimitrios Pagourtzis killed eight children and two adults and wounded over a dozen others at the high school near Galveston in May 2018, when he was 17 years old, authorities said. Survivors and family members of some of those who were gunned down had sued Pagourtzis’ parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, accusing them of failing to properly secure the family’s firearms and failing to act on their son’s declining mental state leading up to the shooting. “Parents of a depressed child should safely store their guns,” plaintiffs’ attorney Clint McGuire said in opening statements. “If they don’t, and their child commits a school shooting with them, the parents share in the responsibility for those harms and losses.” The parents testified they didn’t see any warning signs ahead of the shooting, and their attorney argued they could not be held liable for the son’s actions.