Some Santa Fe Victims May Have Been Hit During a Gun Battle Between Cops and the Shooter

Some of the 10 people killed in the Santa Fe High School shooting may have been shot during what law enforcement officials say was a 25-minute gun battle between themselves and shooting suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis.

Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesse told reporters on Monday that, to the best of his knowledge, none of the people shot during the firefight were hit by law enforcement, but he cautioned that he wouldn’t know for sure until autopsies had been completed on all the victims.

“There were minimal shots fired, at least from us, from law enforcement,” he said. “But the individual was still trying to shoot us.”

Trochesse’s comments come in the midst of an effort by the Trump administration–bolstered in part by Texas Republicans—to address school shootings by arming teachers and other school personnel. Speaking with CNN the day before Trochesse’s press conference, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said, “when you’re facing someone who’s an active shooter, the best way to take that shooter down is with a gun. But even better than that is four to five guns to one.”

At least one police officer was also injured during the shootout. How amateur marksmen would have helped in a situation where trained shooters still took 25 minutes to subdue a school attacker–possibly hitting students in the process—is unclear.

I have reached out to Patrick for comment on Sheriff Trochesse’s statement, and will update this story if he responds.