Ten people were killed and another 10 wounded when a shooter opened fire inside Santa Fe High School in the southeast of Houston, in the U.S. state of Texas, Friday morning, Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed in a press conference. (Xinhua/Steven Song)
WASHINGTON, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Sorrow and anger were pouring after an armed student killed 10 people, mostly fellow students, in the state of Texas on Friday, in the latest bloody school shooting to hit the United States.
A 17-year-old shooter was taken into custody after opening fire inside Santa Fe High School in the southeast of Houston, local police said.
President Donald Trump addressed the shooting shortly after the news broke, vowing to take actions to protect students and secure schools.
"This has been going on for too long in our country," Trump said during an event at the White House. "We grieve and send our support and love to everyone affected by this absolutely horrible attack."
However, Trump did not say what actions his administration will take to protect students.
The shooting at the Texas school came just over three months after a shooting killed 17 students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, state of Florida.
Several students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High reached out social media to voice their sadness and outrage.
"Our children are being MURDERED and you're treating this like a game," student Jaclyn Corin wrote in response to the president's Twitter comments about the Texas shooting. "This is the 22nd school shooting just this year. DO SOMETHING."
A woman prays outside the Santa Fe ISD Alamo Gym where students and faculty are being brought after a shooting at Santa Fe High School on Friday, May 18, 2018, in Santa Fe, Texas. (Jennifer Reynolds /The Galveston County Daily News via AP)
Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas expressed his prayers on social media to students and faculty at the school as well as first responders at the scene.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia noted that there have been 22 school shootings in the United States in 2018 and three of them occurred in the past week alone.
"How many times must our hearts break hearing news like this," Kaine tweeted. "This has to stop."
"More tragic bloodshed & heartbreak caused by cruel gun violence," said Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. "Congress is complicit."
The February shooting in Parkland has rekindled the country's debate and movement over gun control but no major federal gun controls have been imposed since then.
"Santa Fe High, you didn't deserve this," wrote Stoneman Douglas student Emma Gonzalez, a vocal survivor of the Parkland shooting.
"You deserve peace all your lives, not just after a tombstone saying that is put over you," added Gonzalez, also an organizer of the "March for Our Lives" rally in Washington D.C. in March.
"My heart is so heavy for the students of Santa Fe High School," wrote fellow Parkland student Corin.
"It's an all too familiar feeling no one should have to experience. I am so sorry this epidemic touched your town - Parkland will stand with you now and forever," Corin said.
An unnamed police also confirmed that explosives were found at the campus of Santa Fe High School.
The gunman, who was taken into custody on murder charges, was identified as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old junior at the school.
He was using a shotgun and a .38 revolver belonging to his father to carry out the attack, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Those weapons were legally owned.
Abbott described the shooting as "one of the most heinous attacks that we've ever seen in the history of Texas schools."
"Nothing can prepare a parent for the loss of a child," Abbott told reporters.
Interviewed by media, several students said they had been trained what to do when a shooting happens, but never thought a real shooting would happen.
"My friend got shot in the art hall," Santa Fe student Dakota Shrader, told reporters.
"I shouldn't be going through this," Shrader said. "It's my school. This is my daily life. I feel scared to even go back.
Santa Fe High School is located in Galveston County, about 54 km southeast of downtown Houston. There are about 1,400 students in the high school. Santa Fe is a city with a population about 13,000.
The school was on lockdown Friday.
The county is about 360 km east of Sutherland Springs, Texas, where a gunman barged into a church in November and murdered 26 people.
