Kevin Mazur/Getty Images(SANTA FE, Texas) — Two of the biggest comedians of the past decade took time out from their tour to meet with survivors of the Santa Fe High School shooting on Friday.
Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart met with the students on Friday afternoon, according to Harris County Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen’s Twitter page. Rosen shared pictures of the two A-list stars shaking hands and talking with the students.
Santa Fe student Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, allegedly burst into an art room at the Texas school on May 18 with a shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver, killing 10 and injuring 13 others. He was taken into custody and has been charged with murder. Two faculty members and eight students were killed.
Students at the school didn’t return until May 29.
Chappelle and Stewart performed together on Thursday and Friday nights at the Smart Financial Center in Sugar Land, Texas, and have shows on Saturday and Sunday at the Abraham Chavez Theatre in El Paso, Texas.
The tweet from the constable said the comedic duo were also in town to attend the Big 3 Basketball League — a three-on-three league consisting of many recently retired NBA players — which kicked off its second season in Houston on Thursday.
Stewart is a well-known advocate for stricter gun control. The former “Daily Show” host dedicated a segment to the Emanuel AME Church shooting in June 2015, not long before he stepped away from the show he made famous. A resigned Stewart said, “I honestly have nothing other than just sadness once again that we have to peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other.”
Chappelle has worked gun violence into his act before. Less than three weeks ago, at a show in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the comedian — who has a deal to produce specials for Netflix — joked gun laws would only change if more black people registered for legal guns, according to Philadelphia magazine.
The comedians weren’t the first A-list celebrities to visit students from Santa Fe High School. Pop star Justin Timberlake visited Sarah Salazar, who was wounded in the shooting, at the hospital in late May. Houston Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt also visited Salazar after the shooting.
The Santa Fe shooting was the second in 2018 at a school in which over 10 people were killed. A former student walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14 and killed 17 students and teachers with an AR-15-style rifle.Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.