Santa Fe Alleged Shooter Trial Moved To Fort Bend County, 600 Quarantined At County Jail Because Of Mumps Outbreak, And Texas To Deploy 1,000 National Guard Troops To Border

Friday, June 21, 2019

Top afternoon stories:

Santa Fe Alleged Shooter Trial Moved To Fort Bend County

The trial for Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the suspect in the Santa Fe High School shooting, has been moved to Fort Bend County.

Pagourtzis, who is now 18-years-old but was 17 when he allegedly committed the crime in May 2018, is accused of killing 10 people and wounding 13 others. He has been charged with capital murder and aggravated assault.

In a brief three-minute hearing held on Friday, a Galveston County judge issued his decision on where the trial will be held.

The judge granted a change of venue request to defense attorneys back in February.

The trial is scheduled to begin early next year.

600 Quarantined At County Jail Because Of Mumps Outbreak

The number of quarantined inmates at the Harris County jail has doubled in one week because of a mumps outbreak, a spokesman for the Houston Health Department told News 88.7 on Friday. Currently, there are approximately 600 quarantined inmates, while the number was 300 as of Thursday, June 13.

Porfirio Villarreal said the number of confirmed mumps cases is still seven, six inmates and one jail staffer were diagnosed. Another eight people are being monitored for potential infection. That's one more than what Dr. David Persse, Houston's EMS medical director, reported last week.

Jail medical staff first recognized an inmate with mumps symptoms in mid-May.

Last week, Persse said his department is concerned about the outbreak because there can be serious complications in a small percentage of patients, including swelling and damage of reproductive organs, as well as inflammation of the brain. Mumps can also be dangerous for pregnant women.

Texas To Deploy 1,000 National Guard Troops To Border

Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday that the state will deploy 1,000 troops from the Texas National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to aid the federal government with border security efforts.

"There is an escalating crisis at the border — a crisis Congress is refusing to fix," said Abbott, who was flanked by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, along with Brig. Gen. Tracy Norris, the adjutant general of the Texas National Guard, during a news conference at the Texas Capitol.

Abbott said the troops will "provide assistance at temporary holding facilities" in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso and also help at ports of entry.

The federal government, he said, will pay "100% of the costs of this short-term mission."

Migrant apprehensions along the border have continued to surge in recent months. According to numbers released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the beginning of June, roughly 133,000 were apprehended or surrendered to border agents along the southwest border in May.