SANTA FE, TX (ABC NEWS)- At least five vigils will be held in the coming days to mourn the 10 people killed in a shooting massacre at Santa Fe High School in Texas on Friday morning.
Students, faculty and staff were allowed to return to the school Saturday and were escorted inside to collect their belongings. The school and others in Santa Fe will be closed Monday and Tuesday, officials said.
Eight students and two teachers were shot and killed when 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis allegedly burst into an art room with a shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver, both of which appear to be legally owned by his father. Thirteen other people, including a police officer, were wounded, according to officials.
Pagourtzis is in custody and has been charged with capital murder.
The policeman wounded was Santa Fe Independent School District officer John Barnes, who confronted the shooter and was shot in the arm. Houston Police Department Capt. Jimmy Dale, a friend of Barnes, told ABC News the officer is still in and out of consciousness, but improving.
“The surgery went great,” Dale said. “We thought maybe he’d lose his arm, but it looks like he’ll be able to keep it. There won’t be much use, he’s got some feeling in it, but he’s gonna live and that’s what’s most important.”
Dale also praised his friend for rushing into the action to help students, saying, “He would drop everything and go in there. And he knew with an active shooter, to eliminate the threat, any second you waste is a life lost and he wasn’t going to let that happen.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called Friday’s shooting “one of the most heinous attacks that we’ve ever seen in the history of Texas schools.”
The Galveston District Attorney released the names of all the victims Saturday: Glenda Perkins, a teacher; Cynthia Tisdale, a teacher’s aide; and Santa Fe students Chris Stone, Aaron McLeod, Kimberly Vaughan, Shana Fisher, Angelique Ramirez, Christian Garcia and Jared Black.
Sabika Sheikh, a student from Pakistan who was at Santa Fe High School for an exchange program, was also killed. Her funeral is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday at the Dulles Masjid in Stafford, Texas.
“I send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Sabika Sheikh,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. “Sabika was in the United States on the State Department-sponsored Youth Exchange and Study program, helping to build ties between the United States and her native Pakistan. Sabika’s death and that of the other victims is heartbreaking and will be mourned deeply both here in the United States, and in Pakistan.”
