Prosecutor: Ohio shooting suspect is ‘not well’

CHARDON, Ohio — The teenager accused of killing three students in a shooting spree in an Ohio high school cafeteria chose his victims at random and is “someone who’s not well,” a prosecutor said Tuesday as the slightly built young man appeared in juvenile court.

T.J. Lane, 17, 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, Prosecutor David Joyce said. Joyce said the gunman will probably be charged with three counts of aggravated murder and other offenses.

The hearing came hours after the death toll rose to three, and as schoolmates and townspeople grappled with the tragedy and wondered what could have set the gunman off — a mystery the court appearance did nothing to solve.

Afterward, though, the prosecutor appeared to rule out rumors and speculation the gunman lashed out after being bullied or that the shooting had something to do with drug-dealing.

“He chose his victims at random. This is not about bullying. This is not about drugs,” Joyce said. “This is someone who’s not well, and I’m sure in our court case we’ll prove that to all of your desires and we’ll make sure justice is done here in this county.”

Joyce would not elaborate. Both sides in the case are under a gag order imposed by the judge at the prosecutor’s request.

The gunman, a slight figure with short dark hair, seemed small next to sheriff’s deputies leading him into court. His face twitched lightly while the prosecutor recounted the attack, and he sniffled and half-closed his eyes as he walked out of the room with deputies.

The gunman’s grandfather, who has custody of the teenager, and two aunts joined him in court; the women reached over and lightly embraced the grandfather as the hearing began.

Judge Timothy Grendell ordered the boy, who is considered a juvenile, held for at least 15 days. Prosecutors have until Thursday to charge him. In addition to imposing the gag order, the judge told the media not to photograph the boy’s face in court.

Meanwhile, shaken residents offered condolences and prayers to the families of those killed and wounded at the 1,100-student high school, and the community offered grief counseling to students, staff and others at area schools. All three of the dead were students, as are the two wounded victims.

“We’re not just any old place, Chardon,” Chardon School Superintendent Joseph Bergant II said. “This is every place. As you’ve seen in the past, this can happen anywhere, proof of what we had yesterday.”

A Cleveland hospital said Demetrius Hewlin, who had been in critical condition, died Tuesday morning. The news came shortly after Police Chief Tim McKenna said 17-year-old Russell King Jr. had died. Another student, Daniel Parmertor, died hours after the shooting.

Both King and Parmertor were students at the Auburn Career Center, a vocational school, and were waiting in the Chardon High cafeteria for a bus for their daily 15-minute ride when they were shot.

The gunman’s family is mourning “this terrible loss for their community,” Robert Farinacci, an attorney for the gunman and his family, said in a statement.

Fifteen-year-old Danny Komertz, who witnessed the shooting up close, said it appeared that the gunman singled out a group of students sitting together. He said the gunman was known as an outcast who had apparently been bullied. But other students disputed that.

Farinacci told WKYC-TV that the gunman “pretty much sticks to himself but does have some friends and has never been in trouble over anything that we know about.”

The gunman did not go to Chardon High, instead attending nearby Lake Academy, which is for students with academic or behavioral problems.

Student Nate Mueller said that he was at the table in the cafeteria where the victims were shot, and a bullet grazed his ear. Mueller told The Plain Dealer that King — one of those killed — had recently started dating the gunman’s ex-girlfriend.

Lane “was silent the whole time,” Mueller said. “That’s what made it so random.”

Frank Hall, an assistant high school football coach who has been hailed as a hero by students who say he chased the gunman out of the cafeteria, told a Cleveland TV station that he couldn’t discuss what happened, but added: “I wish I could have done more.”