Dad of accused shooter says he worried his son was killed before he realized he was the shooter

GALVESTON COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- The father of the accused Santa Fe High School shooter, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, defended himself in front of a jury for the first time and said he is not responsible for the 10 killed and 13 wounded six years ago.

He and his wife, Rose Marie Kosmetatos, are both being sued for negligence, with families of the victims alleging that, as parents, they should have both secured the family's guns and gotten their son mental health treatment.

When Antonios Pagourtzis took the stand, the first question was simple.

So was the answer.

"Do you accept any responsibility for what happened on May 18, 2018?" an attorney for the plaintiffs asked.

"No," he answered.

Antonios' son isn't in court. He has been found incompetent to stand trial criminally but is also being sued as part of the civil trial.

On Thursday, Antonios testified his son used two of the family's guns in the mass shooting, but also said he kept the guns locked in his home.

"He was storing his bomb-making materials in your safe? Right?" an attorney asked.

"I don't know," Antonios answered.

"Let's talk about Dimitri's mental health. You told us there were no signs or symptoms whatsoever that Dimitri had any mental or emotional issues prior to May 18th of 2018, right?" the attorney asked.

"Right," he answered.

Antonios also testified about the morning of the shooting. He said he rushed to Santa Fe High after hearing something was going on.

He said he drove to the school and ran to the parking lot.

That's where he saw injured students and worried his son had been killed.

"I got the feelings, I said, 'Something is happening,'" Antonios said.

He started making phone calls.

Then, he approached a police officer, who told him that his own son was the shooter.

"The cop is next to me. I said, 'Look, let me go in.' You know, because I hear the shooting still. I said, 'Let me go in; if something happens, let him kill me; don't kill everyone,'" he said.

Police officers did not let him into the school.

"When you found that out, did the thought go through your mind, 'That can't be my child?'" the attorney asked him.

"Yes," he said.

"When you found that out, did the thought go through your mind, 'What did I do wrong as a parent?'"

"Yes. Yes sir," he answered.

For seven days, jurors have heard from 19 witnesses: police officers who responded to the shooting, those who survived the shootings, and those who lost their loved ones.

They have seen journals allegedly from the accused shooter about his depression and his hatred of his family and classmates.

Attorneys have presented multiple journal entries and other essays they say the accused shooter wrote.

It's unclear when it was written or in what context, but in one that has been entered into evidence, the accused shooter allegedly wrote about his parents, "The reason they are alive is not because I would not enjoy killing them, but because I want them to suffer for their actions. I hope this hurts them for as long as they live."

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