One dead, four wounded in Ohio school shooting

A boy opened fire on classmates early yesterday in a high school cafeteria in Ohio, killing one and wounding four before fleeing and being apprehended, police and witnesses said.

Children were preparing for class at Chardon High School, outside Cleveland, when the boy, who was identified by classmates but described by police only as a “juvenile”, started shooting with a handgun.

A teacher chased the boy from the school as the small community was placed on lockdown and the victims were rushed to hospital, some by helicopter. The boy was arrested a short while later, turning himself in to bystanders, according to one police statement.

“The sad news is that I know from my people downtown, we have one deceased student right now,” Chardon police chief Tim McKenna told a press conference, providing no more information about the injured.

“One of the teachers happened to chase the shooting suspect out of the building,” allowing officers to enter and secure the school to allow emergency personnel to treat the victims, he said.

“With that done, we started searching the areas, and shortly thereafter, we came up with the suspect. He is in custody,” Mr McKenna said. “No name will be released because he hasn’t been charged yet. He is a juvenile.”

Authorities put the school on lockdown after shots were fired at about 7.30 a.m. (1230 GMT), just prior to the start of classes. Masked Swat team members ringed Chardon High and conducted security sweeps, and pupils were quickly evacuated from the building and transported to a nearby elementary school to be released to parents.

Police didn’t identify the suspect but fellow classmates did and described the panic inside the cafeteria as they feared for their lives.

“My friends were crawling on the floor, and one of my friends was bent over the table, and he was shot,” one student, Nate, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “It was almost like a firecracker went off. I turned around and saw him standing with a gun and I saw him take a shot.”

Word of the tragedy sent parents rushing to the school, where they went through a protracted process of reuniting with their children.

“We’ve had disaster drills in the past, thank God we put those into place because our teaching staff did an excellent job in a very horrible, traumatic experience this morning,” said Chardon schools superintendent Joe Bergant.

A parent, Jeannette Roth, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that her son, Joshua, a junior, was in the cafeteria when the shooting occurred.