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People embrace outside the Alamo Gym where students and parents wait to reunite following a school shooting at Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2018. Photo: Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle/AP

Our nation is heartbroken by the horrific school shooting this morning at Santa Fe High just outside Galveston, Texas. While the story continues to unfold it’s vital that we join together AS ONE in heartfelt prayer for everyone involved.

This morning an armed person walked into an art class at the school and began firing a shotgun, a witness said. Authorities report that ten are dead, including nine students and one teacher. At least 13 people are wounded and being treated at three hospitals.

Students heard gunfire erupt at the school not long after classes began about 7:45 a.m. (CT). Two school resource officers were on the campus and confronted the shooter “early on in the process.” Authorities later found explosives, including pressure cookers and pipe bombs, both in and near the school.

Police have taken into custody 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a Santa Fe High School student and defensive tackle on the 2016 junior varsity football team. Investigators believe that a second person, an 18-year-old also thought to be a student, may be an accomplice but not a shooter.

This was the 22nd US school shooting since the beginning of the year, and the third instance in eight days in which a gunman was on a school campus. It’s time to raise up a Psalm 91 prayer shield over the campuses of our nation.

Lets’ Pray:

• Heavenly Father, we ask YOU to pour out Your Spirit over the grieving Santa Fe High School community today. God of all Comfort, we ask YOU to draw near and heal the broken hearts of the parents, families, and friends of those who have lost loved ones.
• Father, we ask YOU to heal those who were wounded and we pray for miracles for those whose lives may still hang in the balance.
• Bring YOUR peace to the students, teachers and first responders involved in today’s school shooting and heal them from the deep trauma they’ve experienced.
• Lord, we are grateful for our first responders, whose courage and heroism prevented more lives from being lost. We lift before YOU the law enforcement who are working on the case. Help them find the information they need to bring closure and justice to this investigation. Harden the security breaches that need to be implemented to protect our nation’s schools from further shootings and other acts of violence.
• God, our Protector, help us as believers to be mindful to pray for our students’ and teachers’ safety. We ask YOU to send forth YOUR guardian angels (Psalm 91) to protect the schools across our country, in Jesus’ Name! AMEN.

Sources:

1. Many Fernandez, “At Least 10 Dead in Santa Fe, Texas, School Shooting; Suspect in Custody,” New York Times, May 18, 2018.
2. Jason Hanna, “Officer Identifies Suspect in Shooting that Killed 10 at Texas Santa Fe High School,” CNN, May 18, 2018.