Some of the Santa Fe explosives connected to high school mass shooting suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis were functional, authorities now say. Initial reports said they were non-operational.
That revelation could lead to federal charges against Pagourtzis, 17, after the shooting that killed 10 people and injured nearly a dozen others, the Houston Chronicle reported. He already faces state capital murder charges.
One source told the Chronicle that federal agents were continuing to test evidence found at suburban Houston high school and the home of Pagourtzis while the Justice Department considers filing additional charges.
Officials told the Chronicle that early reports suggested that the bombs – made of CO2 canisters wrapped with duct tape, were non-operational, but testing by experts concluded that at least some of them were functional.
Authorities described one bomb as being made out of a pressure cooker with an alarm clock and nails, but no explosive material, CNN reported. Authorities also found an unlit Molotov cocktail, said Galveston County Magistrate Mark Henry.
"There have been explosives devices found in the high school and surrounding areas adjacent to the high school," the Santa Fe Independent School District tweeted around noon on Friday. "Because of the threat of explosive items, community members should be on the look-out for suspicious packages and anything that looks out of place."
Authorities told KTRK-TV that Pagourtzis was armed with a shotgun and a .38 revolver that belonged to his father, which was legally purchased. A cell phone, computer and journals collected by law enforcement suggested that the suspect had planned to commit suicide after the shooting, but instead surrendered.
Two substitute teachers and eight students – included a foreign exchange student from Pakistan – were killed, the Dallas Morning News reported.
CNN said it was the 22nd school shooting in the United States this year and the third instance in eight days in which a gunman was on a school campus.
It was the deadliest school shooting since the mass shooting Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where 17 people were killed on campus.
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