Parents of Galveston shooter found not liable for negligence

A jury in southeast Texas on Monday cleared Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos of liability for negligence related to a school shooting their son committed in 2018. The then 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis entered his Santa Fe high school and fatally shot two teachers and eight students while wounding over a dozen more victims. Dimitrios’ parents were accused of civil negligence with an attorney for the plaintiffs saying the pair improperly stored their firearms and failed to identify and respond to Dimitrios’ struggle with mental health. Declining hygiene, poor grades, increased isolation, and wearing a trench coat to school should have been points of concern for the parents, the plaintiffs’ attorney alleged.

The pair claimed they didn’t notice anything troubling enough to act on, and even showed photos of Dimitrios dancing on stage at a Greek dance festival days before the shooting. The Pagourtzis owned more than a dozen guns–two of which were used in the attack. All guns in the home were locked in two cabinets and the keys were hidden in the house, which they said Dimitrios somehow found without their knowledge. The jury deliberated over a span of two days before clearing the couple of all charges.

The verdict comes months after a judge criminally sentenced James and Jennifer Crumbley to at least a decade in prison for several involuntary manslaughter charges in connection to a school shooting by their son, Ethan. The then-15-year-old fatally shot four students and wounded seven other people at Oxford High School in 2021. They are the first parents in U.S. history to be convicted and sentenced on charges related to a mass school shooting their child committed. Both pleaded not guilty to all charges. Attorneys for the Crumbleys similarly insisted the shooting could not have been anticipated.

Has anyone been convicted for the Galveston attack? Dimitrios received capital murder charges but was found mentally incompetent to stand trial and has remained in a state mental health facility. The ammunition company Lucky Gunner was found liable for illegally selling the ammunition used in the attack to a minor and reached a settlement with plaintiffs earlier this year.

Dig deeper: Read my report for more on the Crumbley parents’ conviction and sentencing.