A shooting at a high school 30 miles from Cleveland has left two students dead and three others injured. The suspect, T.J. Lane, is in police custody. Multiple students have told media outlets that Lane was an outcast at the school and was possibly being bullied. The shooting took place at Chardon High School. The shooting occurred around 7:30 a.m. Monday morning and the school was placed on lockdown. Lane was apprehended by police officers a half mile from the school at his car. He was able to escape the scene despite reports of a teacher chasing after him. The police tracked down Lane by following his footprints in the snow.
One student who witnessed the attack, Danny Komertz, said the following:
“I looked up and this kid was pointing a gun about 10 feet away from me to a group of four kids sitting at a table,” Komertz said. “One kid was kind of like hiding, trying to get underneath the table, trying to hide, protecting his face.”
The first student to die from the shooting was Daniel Parmertor, who wanted to become a computer repairman. He was shot as he waited for his bus to the vocational center. The Parmertor family released the following statement:
“We are shocked by this senseless tragedy. Danny was a bright young boy who had a bright future ahead of him.”
The second student killed is Russell King Jr. No other information about King has been released. King passed away around 6:45 p.m. Monday night, according to the medical examiner. The three remaining injured students are in critical, serious and stable conditions.
Joe Ricci, a teacher at the high school, started screaming ‘Lock Down’ to his students after he heard the first gunshots ring out. He then pulled an injured student inside his classroom, which he heard moaning just outside the door. The injured student removed from the hallway was Nick Walczak, who was shot multiple times.
“Everybody just started running,” said Megan Hennessy. “Everyone was running and screaming down the hallway.”
The students did not know whether the situation was real or if it was a drill when the school went into lockdown. “We all have cellphones, so people were constantly giving people updates – about what was going on, who the victims were, how they were doing,” Rebecca Moser said.
There were frequent drills held at the school for situations such as this one but there are no metal detectors at the school. This was the worst shooting at a United States high school in 11 months and the worst in Ohio since the year 2007, according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
