Suspect ID'd in deadly Ohio school shooting

CHARDON, Ohio - A teenager described as an outcast at a suburban Cleveland high school opened fire in the cafeteria Monday, killing one student and wounding four others before he was chased from the building by a teacher and captured a short distance away, authorities said. A student at the school identified the suspected gunman to CBS News as T.J. Lane.

Law enforcement sources tell CBS News that, a day or two ago, the suspect told classmates something of his plans, but those classmates didn't take him seriously.

Another student who saw the attack close-up said it appeared that the gunman targeted a group of students sitting at a cafeteria table and that the one who was killed was trying to duck under the table.

A bullet grazed Nate Mueller's ear.

"You see glasses of your friends laying all over the place, there's people screaming, everybody's running in different directions and you're just trying to get out," Mueller said.

His friend was killed. The junior was waiting in the cafeteria for a bus to take him to a nearby school where he was studying computer science.

Panicked students screamed and ran through the halls after gunfire broke out at the start of the school day at 1,100-student Chardon High, about 30 miles from Cleveland. Teachers locked down their classrooms as they had been trained to do during drills, and students took cover as they waited for the all-clear.

(Scroll down to listen to emergency audio recordings from the scene.)

One teacher was said to have dragged a wounded student into his classroom for protection. And distressed parents thronged the streets around the school as they heard from students via text message and cellphone long before official word came of the attack.

A distraught Ava Polaski, a sophomore, leaves school grounds with her mother Misty Polaski following a shooting in Chardon, Ohio, Feb. 27, 2012.

/ AP Photo/The Plain Dealer, Thomas Ondrey

Two of the wounded were listed in critical condition, and another was in serious condition.

1 dead in Ohio school shooting; Suspect detained

The suspect, whose name was not released by officials because he is a juvenile, was arrested near his car a half-mile away, the FBI said. He was not immediately charged. The Geauga County Sheriff's Office said that the suspect turned himself in after being chased out of the school by a teacher, CBS News has learned.

29 Photos

Ohio teen gunman gets life in prison

FBI officials would not comment on a motive. And Police Chief Tim McKenna said authorities "have a lot of homework to do yet" in their investigation. But 15-year-old Danny Komertz, who witnessed the shooting, said the gunman was known as an outcast who had apparently been bullied.

"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. He said the gunman fired two shots quickly, and students scrambled for safety. One of them was "trying to get underneath the table, trying to hide, protecting his face."

The slain student, Daniel Parmertor, was an aspiring computer repairman who was shot while waiting for the bus for his daily 15-minute ride to a vocational center. His teacher at the Auburn Career School had no idea why Parmertor, "a very good young man, very quiet," had been targeted, said Auburn superintendent Maggie Lynch.

"We are shocked by this senseless tragedy," his family said in a statement. "Danny was a bright young boy who had a bright future ahead of him."

Parmertor's teacher at Auburn Career School had no idea why Parmertor, "a very good young man, very quiet," had been targeted, said Auburn superintendent Maggie Lynch.

Officers investigating the shooting blocked off a road in a heavily wooded area several miles from the school. Federal agents patrolled the muddy driveway leading to several spacious homes and ponds, while other officers walked a snowy hillside. A police dog was brought in.

A U.S. official said that a preliminary report shows the suspect fired eight shots, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports. The FBI and local police have conducted an extensive search of the home where the suspected shooter lived. (The house belongs to the suspect's grandparents.)

Agents were looking for computer files, phone records, notes and possible weapons, Orr reports. Police are trying to establish a motive for the shootings and are looking for evidence that could show how much planning went into the attack. They are looking through emails, social network postings, and other communications to determine what the suspect may have shared with friends or associates about his intent.

One law enforcement source says the suspect "is cooperating" with police.

Teacher Joe Ricci had just begun class when he heard shots and slammed the door to his classroom, yelling, "Lock down!" to students, according to Karli Sensibello, a student whose sister was in Ricci's classroom.

A few minutes later, Ricci heard a student moaning outside, opened the door and pulled in student Nick Walczak who had been shot several times, Sensibello said in an email. Ricci comforted Walczak and let him use his cellphone to call his girlfriend and parents, Sensibello said. She said her sister was too upset to talk.

Heather Ziska, 17, said she was in the cafeteria when she saw a boy she recognized as a fellow student come into the cafeteria and start shooting. She said she and several others immediately ran outside, while other friends ran into a middle school and others locked themselves in a teachers' lounge.

"Everybody just started running," said 17-year-old Megan Hennessy, who was in class when she heard loud noises. "Everyone was running and screaming down the hallway."

Rebecca Moser, 17, had just settled into her chemistry class when the school went into lockdown. The class of about 25 students ducked behind the lab tables at the back of the classroom, uncertain whether it was a drill.

Text messages started flying inside and outside the school, spreading information about what was happening and what friends and family were hearing outside the building.

"We all have cellphones, so people were constantly giving people updates — about what was going on, who the victims were, how they were doing," Moser said.

The school had no metal detectors, but current and past students said it had frequent security drills in case of a shooting.

Anxious parents of high school students were told to go to an elementary school to pick up their children.

Joe Bergant, superintendent of schools in Chardon, a town of about 5,100 people, said school was canceled Tuesday and grief counselors would be available to students and families.

"If you haven't hugged or kissed your kid in the last couple of days, take that time," he said.

[mrschoicee2u]

First they said enough was enough, so they came up with the gun buying program, then they came back and said it was ok to get a permit and carry guns ! common since should have told them they were starting a world of massive destruction ! people did'nt know how to act without permits,so what makes you think they will with permits, they basically gave us permission to kill off one another, and we are dum enough to follow through with it, what happened to the Will of God ? We can follow man in his pattern of distruction, but we can't follow our loving heavenly father, and love one another as he instructed us to do, are we saying that there is no God ? no to God ? does man and Satan have that much power over our heavenly father ? think about it, because we are heading down a road to destruction if we don't get a grip on our lives, and the decisions we make, try Jesus, I dare you ! and if I could find a way to put a message out for the whole world to see, it would be for them to take their guns to the police stations and leave them , and say thanks, but no thanks, but not too many people respect life enough to do so, and to let the law know that we know that there is a better way, and it definately is'nt the way they chose for us , stop the violence, I dare you to let go, and let God, I dare you, and it will make the news if people start turning in their guns, trust me, it really will, but we don't really want peace, or do we ? if we do , lets make it happen, lets get these guns off the streets !

[hawkman1001-2009]

Another blue-ribbon day for the National Rifle Association.

If the NRA wasn't so intent in making sure that everybody and anybody had as many guns as they could possibly get, maybe these kids would have to use their fists or some other non-lethal method to settle their beefs instead of grabbing the nearest gun.

While it does happen, places like Canada with strict gun control very rarely have school shootings. In fact, Canada has very few shootings at all compared to the United States and many of those shootings are from handguns smuggled in from the United States.

[cascadia97]

It's the government that's permitting and encouraging the use of guns everywhere--likely with the intent to frighten people into accepting more locked-down police surveillance and control. So, it's working out just fine for the Powers-That-Be--school shootings, murder of National Park officers(A-OK to carry guns in National Parks now), random killings every day.

Too bad for us.

[ProgressNow]

I don't think I would have ever been mad enough to take a gun and start shooting my fellow students. Can't say that today...there's a number of co-workers that SIMPLY MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!!! (That's not a car backfiring you hear in the distance...)

[FACEITT]

Bet not one of the kids who got shot will admit to bullying this kid but I bet they will be more careful in the future who they target for their "sport". I think he picked out the worst of the bullies, including the one he killed. I believe he was only after that group, otherwise he would have shot the teacher who chased him out of the school. Definitely needs a psych evaluation. I feel sorry for all the kids that have the parents they have that raised them to be the type of people they are. Nothing to be proud of.

[ea6bq2]

This is what happens when kids are using anti depressing pills, but the us government, pharmaceutical companies and the courts, are sealing all the evidence, so that the public will not be aware what drugs this kids are using.

[askagain]

Students are expected to repress their anger rather than to "duke it out" as was common in the 1950's and 1960's. I witnessed many fist fights in elementary and junior high school (now middle school). Usually a teacher woould break-up a fight or refereee the fight. Afterwatds, the student might receive a lecture from the teacher or principal. Rarely was anyone suspended or expelled from school over a fight. We all carried pocket knives in elementary, junior high, and high school. Nothing was said as long as we kept them in our pockets. None of us would consider using our pocket knives as a weapon. Perhaps, many of these angry and violent behaviors are the result of forcing kids to repress their anger, feelings, and emotions rather than releasing them even if it means an occassional fist fight.

[ProgressNow]

Why don't we ever hear where these kids get the guns from????????

[Ryker99169]

that's all locked up under the evidence while the courts hash it out.

[Wookiee-1138]

This is interesting... you people say schools are soft on crime? Than kids are no longer disciplined or punished?


These days all a bully has to do is approach a school cop with crocodile tears and falsely accuse their victim of making threats. Then an innocent kids' reputation is irreparably damaged. No matter that the slandering bastards give no evidence, No matter the victim's protests of innocence, it's all too easy for an innocent kid to end up with a juvie record and be passed over for scholarships, colleges and jobs for decades to come. Those slandering bastards are worse than actual shooters and the authorities who automatically believe them give victims no recourse. I SAY YOU SCHOOL ADMINS CREATE SCHOOL SHOOTERS.

When you get down to it, all kids are sadistic monsters until they can be trained out of it at around age 20. The only remedy is lots of abortions. HOORAY FOR SCIENCE RESEARCH! A handful of pureed fetuses are more than worth it if they thin out the population of the little monsters and help advance stem cell research.

[Samlv]

Being bullied is not the cause of this. This person is crazy.

[ProgressNow]

Or frustrated. Frustration can make people do some very odd acts.

[ralphing]

I remember the day when fighting became real at my grade school. It was the Spring of 1973. That was when the occasional after school fight became dangerous when a kid who was losing, picked up a 2x4 and bashed the other kid with it. It was soon after when you started hearing about fights where someone was injured because of a weapon, rather then fists being used.

I missed it when my schools grade school bully met his demise three years after grade school, when he was stabbed to death after messing with the wrong person. I heard he ran away and hid after getting stabbed, where he died from blood loss. He would have lived if he had seeked medical treatment. I wish I could have seen his face with a scared look on it. Just like he did to other kids.