Texas school shooting suspect posted photo with Nazi symbol

Dimitrios Pagourtzis uploaded picture of jacket with Iron Cross, and emblem with associations to Nazism and white supremacy

This undated photo from Facebook shows Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who law enforcement officials have taken into custody and identified as the suspect in the deadly school shooting Friday, May 18, 2018, in Santa Fe, Texas, near Houston. (Facebook via AP)
This undated photo from Facebook shows Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who law enforcement officials have taken into custody and identified as the suspect in the deadly school shooting Friday, May 18, 2018, in Santa Fe, Texas, near Houston. (Facebook via AP)

The suspect in a school shooting at a Texas high school that left at least 10 people dead had posted a photo of a symbol associated with Nazism on social media.

On Friday morning, 10 people were killed and 10 wounded at a shooting at Santa Fe High School, outside Houston.

The suspect was identified as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student, by a law enforcement official.

Pagourtzis made disturbing and violent posts to social media, including images of a gun and a knife and a photo of a shirt that said “Born to Kill,” the Daily Beast reported. Another photo included a coat decorated with an Iron Cross. The symbol has associations with Nazism and white supremacy, although it is sometimes used for shock value or to symbolize rebellion without the association of those ideologies, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

A photo of a jacket posted to social media by Texas shooting suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis, which bears a German Iron Cross — a symbol associated with Nazism (Facebook)

The Reform movement called on Congress to enact gun reform in a statement addressing the shooting.

“The Reform Jewish Movement refuses to accept a reality in which school shootings are routine,” said Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “We demand more from elected officials who continue to offer empty thoughts and prayers in lieu of substantive gun violence prevention legislation.”

Pagourtzis, carrying a shotgun and a revolver, opened fire at a Houston-area high school Friday, killing 10 people, most of them students, authorities said. It was the nation’s deadliest such attack since the massacre in Florida that gave rise to a campaign by teens for gun control.

The suspected shooter, who was in custody on murder charges, also had explosive devices, including a Molotov cocktail, that were found in the school and nearby, said Gov. Greg Abbott, who called the assault “one of the most heinous attacks that we’ve ever seen in the history of Texas schools.”

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