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Texas High School Shooter's Parents Cleared of Negligence in Civil Suit

The parents of Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a former student who killed 10 people and wounded others when he opened fire in Texas at Santa Fe High School in 2018 are not responsible for their son's actions, a jury ruled on Monday. Survivors and family members of the shooting victims accused the parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, of being negligent in storing their weapons and ignoring signs their son would commit a violent act, USA Today reports. The jury found Dimitrios Pagourtzis and Lucky Gunner, an online retailer from which the shooter purchased the ammunition used in the shooting, liable and awarded $330 million in damages. Lucky Gunner's CEO Jake Felde said his company "isn't responsible for paying any monetary damages awarded by the jury" as it already reached a separate settlement last year and was not a party to the Texas trial.


The lawsuit was brought by families of the Santa Fe High School shooting victims, claiming that the shooter's parents "knew that their son was at risk of harming himself or others but still irresponsibly and negligently stored their firearms, so that their son could access them." According to the lawsuit, the shooter exhibited warning signs and had violent fantasies in advance of the shooting. His parents, the suit said, knew something was wrong with their son and still stored their weapons negligently. Defense attorneys for Antonios Pagourtzis and Kosmetatos said their son was "sneaky" in removing the family's guns from their cabinet and gun safe without his parents knowing. They said they had no warning signs of what he would do. The defense also placed some of the blame on Lucky Gunner. The lawsuit claimed the shooter did not need to present age verification to buy the bullets.

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