The teenager charged with capital murder in a 2018 Texas high school shooting is now also facing federal charges.
The Houston Chronicle reports that federal agents came to the Galveston County Jail Monday to take Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 18, into custody and have him arraigned on the new charges.
The charges stem from the May 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, that killed 10 and injured 13.
Pagourtzis appeared at a closed-door hearing, and the specific federal charges have not been disclosed because Pagourtzis was 17 when the shooting occurred and under federal law, he was a juvenile. Pagourtzis' attorney, Katy-Marie Lyles, says the federal charges involve the use of explosives and firearms.
The federal charges were unexpected. Families of people killed in the attack met privately in March with federal officials, including Ryan Patrick, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, and were told that it was unlikely federal charges would be filed against Pagourtzis.
Since the meeting with the U.S. attorney, victims and survivors' families began calling their U.S. elected representatives and rallying others to do the same. The families of all 23 people killed or injured in the shooting also planned a press conference for Sunday, which they canceled in hopes federal authorities would act in coming days.
Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady, who is prosecuting the state charges against Pagourtzis, did not have any information on the nature of the federal charges, but says they would not affect the state's case against the accused shooter going forward.
Pagourtzis, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, already is facing state charges for capital murder and aggravated assault against a public servant in the shooting.
