Among the fatalities at Santa Fe High School were a Pakistani exchange student and a substitute teacher trying to make ends meet for her family.
Eight students and two teachers fell victim to gunfire at a high school outside in Texas on Friday morning, becoming the latest casualties in a wave of deadly school shootings in the United States in recent years.
Among the fatalities at Santa Fe High School were a Pakistani exchange student and a substitute teacher trying to make ends meet for her family.
Sabika Sheikh, a 17-year-old Pakistani girl with a bright smile, was studying in the United States as an exchange student. The experience was organized through YES, a program funded by the US State Department which provides scholarships for students from countries with significant Muslim populations to spend one academic year in the United States.
Her father Abdul Aziz Sheikh told reporters in her hometown of Karachi that she was the eldest of four children. Sheikh had been in the US for 10 months and was due to return to Pakistan next month for Eid al-Fitr, a three day holiday that marks the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
According to reports, Aziz learned about the school shooting on TV as he broke his Ramadan fast. He called his daughter Sabika Sheikh's phone over and over but received no response.
"I kept calling her and sent her messages on WhatsApp. Never before had my daughter failed to reply," Aziz told AFP.
"We are still in a state of denial. It is like a nightmare," said Aziz. His wife is still in shock and is unable to speak.
Sabika had always excelled in school, her father said, adding that she wanted to serve in Pakistan's foreign office.
Among the victims in Santa Fe school shooting was Cynthia Tisdale, a substitute teacher who took on a second job as a server at a local restaurant to support her family. She was her family's sole income earner when her husband was diagnosed with an incurable lung disease, her brother-in-law John Tisdale posted on Facebook. She has left behind four children.
A 17-year-old student, 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 opened fire shortly before 8 am on Friday.
In addition to 10 fatalities, the shooter 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.
(With Reuters inputs)
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 "Aziz Shaikh, father of Sabika Aziz Sheikh, a Pakistani exchange student, who was killed with others in Santa Fe school shooting")
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