Teen charged in deadly Ohio shooting

(CBS/AP) CHARDON, Ohio - A teenager was charged Thursday with killing three students in a school shooting, the first step in proceedings that could see him charged as an adult and facing the possibility of life without parole if convicted.

The charges filed in Geauga County juvenile court accuse T.J. Lane, 17, of killing three students and wounding two others in the shooting Monday morning at Chardon High School, about 30 miles east of Cleveland.

He is charged with three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of felonious assault.

Students say the gunman was chased from a cafeteria by an assistant football coach, Frank Hall, who has been praised as a hero. Hall spoke shortly after the charges were filed and said he wants the victims' families to know he was with their children and wiped away their tears. (Watch video above).

"I don't know why this happened," he said. "I only wish I could have done more. I'm not a hero. I'm just a football coach and a study hall teacher." The emergency responders at the scene were the real heroes, he said.

Coach from Ohio school shooting: "I'm not a hero"

No motive has been determined. Prosecutor David Joyce has said that victims were selected at random and that Lane is someone "who's not well."

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Ohio teen gunman gets life in prison

Children convicted of juvenile crimes in Ohio are typically behind bars only until they turn 21 in the most serious cases. But Joyce has already said he plans to charge Lane as an adult, meaning he could face life in prison without parole if convicted of similar adult charges.

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Minors are not eligible for the death penalty in Ohio, whether they are convicted as juveniles or adults.

Lane, who attends an alternative school for students who haven't done well in traditional schools, admitted taking a .22-caliber pistol and a knife to Chardon High and firing 10 shots at a group of students sitting at a cafeteria table Monday morning, Joyce said.

Records from Lane's juvenile court files show that in 2009 he was charged with assaulting his uncle, John Breuning, CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports. Authorities said "TJ also jumped on John ... put him in a choke hold."

Other court documents show a troubled family life. His father, Thomas J. Lane Jr., was charged with domestic violence, assault, kidnapping and theft and served time in jail. And mother Sarah A. Nolan was charged with domestic violence in 1995 and convicted of disorderly conduct.

The Tribune-Review in Pittsburgh reported that Lane's aunt, Heather Lane, said earlier by email that her family is "weeping and praying" for Chardon. She says they're grateful for people who have prayed for them and urged the public to continue praying for the victims.

Killed were Demetrius Hewlin, 16, Russell King Jr., 17, and Daniel Parmertor, 16. The motive for the shooting is unclear, though Joyce has appeared to rule out theories involving bullying or drug-dealing.

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Ohio high school shooting victims

Hewlin attended Chardon High. King and Parmertor were students at a vocational school and were waiting in the Chardon High cafeteria for their daily bus when they were shot.

Parmertor had just gotten his first job at a bowling alley and couldn't stop talking about how excited he was to pick up his first paycheck later this week, his parents said.

Two other students were wounded. Nick Walczak remains in serious condition. An 18-year-old girl was released from the hospital Tuesday.

Lane was a normal boy who excelled in school and played outside often with his sister, building snow hills and skateboarding, according to Steve Sawczak, a family friend who's a pastor and has worked with troubled children.

He said he never would have allowed his own grandchildren to play nearby if he thought anything was wrong with Lane.

[daehlin]

A parents' rights organization has called on Congress to investigate a potential link between psychiatric drugs and school shootings, and called for parents to be better informed about the risks of such medications. New York-based Ablechild accused the mental health industry of "[continuing] to downplay the risks of drugs widely prescribed to millions."

http://www.naturalnews.com/022930_drugs_antidepressant_drug.html

Ablechild said that eight recent school shooters were taking antidepressant medication at the time of their crimes, and that most parents are unaware of this fact. Among the shooters taking antidepressants were Eric Harris in Columbine, Colorado, and Kip Kinkel in Springfield, Oregon.

The drugs being taken by the shooters have been "documented to cause not only suicidal ideation but also mania, psychosis, hostility, hallucinations and even 'homicidal behavior,'" Ablechild said.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/022930_drugs_antidepressant_drug.html#ixzz1nui1K1TD

[MrsGina]

I think victims families should have the power to decide if the prosecution goes for the death penalty in such cases as have been determined are eligible. I know it would be hard for my husband to not fight for the death penalty if something happened to me but, the idea that someone could sit in a cell for so long that they lose the ability to see even 20 feet away without the aide of glasses kind of makes me happy that its punishment for being evil:)

[smittyc]

Kids just don't do these types of acts. They can sweep it under the rug all they want to, but unless the communities addresses the root cause here, it is going to happen again and again.

[SUZAMBA]

I feel for all that have suffered this horrible ordeal because of TJ.
He may have acted alone as one, but he has affected the lives of many.
Lives were lost, not one of these families will ever dreamed this would happen to them. And now they must grieve. How horrible, that one person could be responsible for it all.

[ckp016c]

It's a sad situation all around! It's sad for all involved yet at the same time I have to say, you're adult enough to do the crime, you're adult enough to do the time. This teen seems to have lacked something somewhere in life and I don't want to totally blame the parents or whoever the guardians are. Bullying has been going on for yrs and we were taught how to handle it. This is a part of parenting people, we need to cover all bases.

[futureisdoomed]

Following this story untill he is in jail for life or untill some other juvenile "randomly" shoots him.

[cliffndort]

Thank you CBS for just now changing your headline, taking out the "Charged as juvenile" to just "Charged".

A little better review of your headlines before you put them out on the web is very much appreciated.

[cliffndort]

This is a typical and totally misleading headline - "Teen Charged as juvenile". Then, in the first paragraph it says this was the first step and that he could be charged as an adult.
Come on CBS - stop with the tabloid style headlines!

And to those wanting the death penalty, Ohio cannot put a juvenile on death row whether he is charged as a juvenile or as an adult.

And @ Travelers345 - the kids who were shot were not bullies. Lane didn't even know them. Please read articles about this terribly tragedy before you post.

[travelers345]

He told the police he had been bullied by them. It isn't in this article but it was written in another.

[McDuderson]

From what the kids said, one of the group he chose who lived was his ex-girlfriends current boyfriend. Sounds much more like jealousy than bullying.

[travelers345]

And kids who do this aren't just sitting around thinking about killing because they are bored. It's usually because they've reached their breaking point, often from bullying at school. Stop the bullying and a lot of these mass school shootings will stop.

[tlucius]

Bulling has been around for centuries, kids nowadays just can't deal with it very well, at all.

[retm-w]

So you condone the killing of three kids, because of bullying.

[RocktheCashbox]

Either way, he'll have to life with the weight of this for the rest of his life.

www.rockthecashbox.com

[tlucius]

Oh that poor poor traumatized kid, my heart bleeds for him, NOT.