Jurors in Texas are set to continue deliberations on Monday regarding the potential financial liability of the parents of a student involved in a school shooting near Houston in 2018. The lawsuit filed by the victims seeks to hold Dimitrios Pagourtzis and his parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, accountable for the shooting at Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2018, with damages sought totaling at least $1 million. Attorneys for the victims argue that the parents neglected to provide adequate mental health support for their son and did not take sufficient measures to prevent him from accessing their firearms.

During closing statements in the Galveston courtroom, Clint McGuire, representing some of the victims, emphasized that the shooting was carried out by the parents’ son using their guns while under their roof. Eight students and two teachers lost their lives in the tragic incident, perpetrated by Pagourtzis when he was 17 years old. Now 23, Pagourtzis has been charged with capital murder but has been deemed incompetent to stand trial since November 2019 and is currently institutionalized for mental health treatment.

In defense of Pagourtzis’ parents, attorney Lori Laird stated that their son’s mental breakdown was not foreseeable, and he kept his plans for the shooting hidden from them. Laird also highlighted that the parents responsibly stored their firearms securely. The parents of Pagourtzis, unlike the Crumbleys who were recently sentenced in Michigan, have not been charged with any crime in relation to the school shooting. The lawsuit, filed by relatives of seven deceased victims and four survivors of the attack, portrays the lasting trauma experienced by the survivors in the aftermath of the Santa Fe shooting.