Student Declared Brain Dead After Ohio Shooting
David Maxwell/European Pressphoto Agency
Samantha Kimball consoled her younger brother Daniel after a fatal
shooting at a high school in Chardon, Ohio.
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and JESS BIDGOOD
Published: February 28, 2012
An Ohio State Police helicopter landing at Chardon High School on
Monday as students and parents left the campus. A 16-year-old junior
was shot and killed.
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The Associated Press reported that Hugh Shannon, administrator at the
Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office, said officials there
received the word early Tuesday about the student Russell King Jr.
Another student died Monday and three others were injured.
"The cause and manner of death of this case are under ongoing
investigation and will be released upon completion," Mr. Shannon said
in a statement to The Associated Press.
Here in Chardon on Tuesday, a lone flag flew at half-staff outside the
two-story yellow brick high school building. Several small bouquets of
flowers in plastic were placed near an entrance to the high school,
near a sign that read, "Keep our students in your thoughts and
prayers."
The school was closed, its parking lot largely empty and its doors
locked. A near complete silence had settled over the area. Across the
street at Maple Elementary school, grief counselors were on duty.
The local police in Chardon, a town of 5,000, said they had
apprehended a teenage suspect on Monday afternoon, but Tim McKenna,
the police chief, said they could not identify him publicly because he
was a juvenile.
But the family of T. J. Lane, a sophomore who is being held as a
suspect, made his identity public on Monday night when they issued a
statement through a lawyer on WKYC-TV in Cleveland. In the statement,
the Lane family said that they were devastated by the news and that
they wanted "to extend their heartfelt and sincere condolences" to the
victims and their families.
Mr. Lane's family was not speaking to the media on Tuesday morning. On
a wooded road in Chardon Township, a large wooden house with brown and
green trim that was listed as belonging to the Mr. Lane's
grandparents, was dark and silent.
A young man who appeared to be in his 20s got out of his car in the
driveway but did not identify himself; he told a reporter that Mr.
Lane's family had no information.
"We don't know any more than the police and the F.B.I.," the man said,
before driving away.
T. J. is a student at Lake Academy, an alternative high school for
troubled students. "By all accounts, T. J. is a fairly quiet and a
good kid," said Robert N. Farinacci, the Lanes' lawyer, who noted that
T. J. had never been in trouble before.
Students at Chardon High School said they heard screams around 7:40
a.m., the time the authorities said the shooting took place, and
described spreading panic as teachers locked down classrooms and
students started sending text messages to friends. One teacher was
said to have dragged a wounded student into his classroom for
protection.
"I saw two girls running away screaming, and I heard an administrator
come on saying we're in lockdown," said Brady Lawrence, 17, a senior
who was in his English class, near the cafeteria, when the shooting
began.
The classroom collapsed in confusion, he said in an interview, as
students tried to figure out the gunman's location. "We just didn't
know where he was," he said. "They were saying he was loose, and we
were scared."
The authorities identified the dead student as Daniel Parmertor, a
16-year-old junior. They said one student was in critical condition,
while two others appeared to be stable.
According to The Associated Press, Daniel, an aspiring computer
repairman, was shot while waiting in the cafeteria for a bus for his
daily 15-minute ride to a vocational center. "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. The family is
torn by this loss."
Danny Komertz, a student, told The Associated Press that the gunman
appeared to have focused on a group of students. "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," he said.
Brady Lawrence, from the English class, said students tried to call
their friends and families but the network was overloaded. He said
Daniel Parmertor was his neighbor. "I feel so bad for the family,"
Brady said. "They're good people. I'm still kind of in shock. I really
can't believe he's dead right now."
WTAM-AM, a news radio station in Cleveland, bumped Rush Limbaugh's
program on Monday, giving the local host Mike Trivisonno seven hours
to discuss the shootings. Mr. Trivisonno said callers were lined up
all day, with listeners weighing in on the roles that bullying, social
media, gun laws and parenting might have played in the shooting.
"It can happen anywhere, and does," Mr. Trivisonno said on the air in
response to a caller who wondered if a divide between the area's rural
and suburban populations might have contributed to the shootings. "It
can happen anywhere."
Jennifer Preston contributed reporting from New York.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/us/victim-in-ohio-school-shooting-declared-brain-dead.html
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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