A lawsuit filed Thursday accuses the parents of the Santa Fe High School gunman of negligence for failing to properly secure their guns and keep them out of their son’s hands.
The suit, filed in a Galveston County court by Christopher Stone and Rosie Yanas, the parents of Christopher Jake Stone, seeks more than $1 million in damages.
The suit alleges that Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos were negligent by permitting their son to have access to their weapons and ammunition, failing to obtain mental health counseling and services for their son, failing to properly warn the public of their son’s “dangerous propensities” and entrusting their weapons to him.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a junior at the school, was arrested May 18 and charged with capital murder after gunning down Stone, 17, and nine others at Santa Fe High School.
He was armed with a shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver that belonged to his father, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said.
“Had the murderer not had available to him the weapons for his carnage, his hidden black rage might well have continued to simmer within, but the life’s blood of his teacher and peers … would not have been so horribly, callously and needless spilled,” the suit states.
In the aftermath of the school shooting, the deadliest since 17 people were killed Feb. 14 in Parkland, Fla., Abbott held a three-day summit on gun violence.
Among the policies suggested on Day 1 was “greater parent accountability” for the actions of their children, though none of the suggestions are official recommendations.
In addition to Stone, Pagourtzis has been accused in the deaths of Jared Conrad Black, Shana Fisher, Christian Riley Garcia, Aaron Kyle McLeod, Glenda Ann Perkins, Angelique Ramirez, Sabika Sheikh, Cynthia Tisdale and Kimberly Jessica Vaughan.
At least 10 people were injured.
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