The 17-year-old student who authorities say killed 10 people when he opened fire in an art class in his Houston-area high school appeared "weirdly nonemotional" on the morning after the rampage, one of his lawyers says.
The teenager, identified by law enforcement as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, has been charged with capital murder and is being held without bail in Santa Fe, Texas, where authorities said he went on a shooting spree on Friday.
In addition to 10 fatalities, the gunman wounded at least 13 people, with two of them in critical condition. One of those in critical condition was one of the two school resource officers who engaged the shooter before his surrender.
Nicholas Poehl, one of two lawyers hired by the suspect's parents to represent him, told Reuters he had spent a total of one hour with Pagourtzis on Friday night and Saturday morning.
"He's very emotional and weirdly nonemotional," the lawyer said when asked to describe his client's state of mind.
"There are aspects of it he understands and there are aspects he doesn't understand."
As the shooting unfolded, Pagourtzis spared people he liked so he could have his side of the story told, a charging document showed, but there was no immediate indication why he apparently targeted the art class.
Pagourtzis' family said in a statement they were "saddened and dismayed" by the shooting and "as shocked as anyone else" by the events. They said they are co-operating with authorities.
Investigators had seen a photo of a T-shirt on the suspect's Facebook page that read "Born to Kill," and authorities were examining his journal, Texas Governor Greg Abbott told reporters. But there were no outward signs he had been planning an attack.
Pagourtzis waived his right to remain silent and made a statement to authorities admitting to the shooting, according to an affidavit ahead of his arrest.
Asked if Pagourtzis had provided authorities with information about the shootings, Poehl said: "Honestly because of his emotional state, I don't have a lot on that."
Santa Fe High School, southeast of Houston, became the scene of the fourth-deadliest mass shooting at a US public school in modern history, joining a long list of campuses where students and faculty have fallen victim to gunfire.
Australian Associated Press