The mother of one of the victims in Friday's massacre at a Texas high school said she believed her daughter was intentionally targeted by Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the 17-year-old in custody for fatally shooting 10 people.
Sadie Rodriguez told BuzzFeed News that her daughter, Shana Fisher, 16, had problems with the suspect in the four months leading up to the shooting at Santa Fe High School.
My niece Shana Fisher still hasn’t been found. She was in the art room and some classmates have said she was shot in the leg. Still no confirmation on where she is. Please keep praying! https://t.co/9vQzNAmMxP
"He kept making advances on her and she repeatedly told him no," Rodriguez said in a Facebook message. "He continued to get more aggressive."
The 16-year-old girl was one of 10 people who died after Pagourtzis opened fire in a classroom Friday morning.
Rodriguez said the suspect was an ex-boyfriend of her daughter's best friend. Her daughter "finally stood up to him," she said, and "embarrassed him in class" just last week.
"A week later he opens fire on everyone he didn't like," Rodriguez said.
It was unclear if Fisher's problems with Pagourtzis will factor into his criminal case. He faces charges of capital murder and aggravated assault on a public servant.
The Galveston County District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pagourtzis's attorney, Nick Poehl, told BuzzFeed News he was not able to confirm his client's alleged interactions with Fisher prior to the shooting.
"We’ve been appraised of that late this evening," Poehl said. "All I can say is we don't have any information one way or another on that."
After his arrest, Pagourtzis admitted to shooting multiple people with "the intent on killing people" in an interview with police, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in court.
"Dimitrios advised he did not shoot students he did like so he could have his story told," the affidavit said.
Students who knew Pagourtzis told BuzzFeed News they had never heard him talk about Fisher.
Grace Johnson, a Santa Fe High School senior who said she was in a forensics class with him, described Pagourtzis as shy, and said that, to her knowledge, he never had a girlfriend and did not spend a lot of time with girls.
"Dimitri was my friend. Whoever killed my peers, [it] wasn't Dimitri," Johnson, 18, told BuzzFeed News. "That was a monster."
Stephen Bland, another Santa Fe High School student, told the New Yorker that Pagourtzis was one of his best friends and was shy around girls, never having a girlfriend.
Bland's girlfriend, Juliette Rachel, told BuzzFeed News she hung out with Pagourtzis every day before third period and he never mentioned Fisher or really any other girls.
"He never talked about Shana and she wasn't his type," said Rachel. "He was into more quiet girls. Girls more like himself."
But he talked about his dad, she said, who could be "mean" to him.
"He and his dad didn’t seem to have the best life," the high school senior recalled, remembering one time "his dad banged really hard on his door one day because he was late, he was cursing at him and scaring him and just being mean."
While she doesn't remember Pagourtzis exhibiting any signs of anger toward anyone or expressing his hurt or frustration, she noted that he started donning a medallion-decked coat — with Nazi-related and occult imagery— a few weeks before the Parkland school shooting and had become more withdrawn.
"The last four months he was more distant than normal, but I’m not sure why," she said.