2012 Chardon High School shooting
On the morning of February 27, 2012, six students were shot at Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio, three of whom were killed. Witnesses said that the shooter had a personal rivalry with one of his victims. Two other wounded students were also hospitalized, one of whom sustained several serious injuries that have resulted in permanent paralysis. The fifth student suffered a minor injury, and the sixth a superficial wound.
By the evening of February 27, authorities confirmed that the suspect was Thomas Michael "T. J." Lane III, a 17-year-old male juvenile and former student of Chardon, who was a sophomore at Lake Academy Alternative School and used a bus in common with several victims. Lane used a.22 caliber handgun. Lane was soon arrested by police near his car parked outside the school. Lane was ultimately indicted on three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated attempted murder, and one count of felonious assault. Because of his age, he was detained as a juvenile pending a decision by the prosecution and court as to whether he would be tried as an adult.
Following a competency hearing, in May 2012, a judge determined that Lane was competent to stand trial. Later that month the decision was made to charge Lane as an adult. He pleaded guilty and received three consecutive life sentences without parole on March 19, 2013.
In February 2014 the families of the three deceased students and Nick Walczak filed a wrongful death suit in Lake County against the Chardon School District and Lake Academy Alternative School. The Lake County judge dismissed the District and Lake Academy as parties, retaining only five former and current employees of the Chardon School District and high school as defendants. The families appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in July 2016. It was returned to the Lake County Common Pleas court.
In addition, attorneys representing the estates of the three deceased students filed federal and state wrongful death suits against the family of T.J. Lane, which was settled in May 2014, including settlement of suits against his father, maternal grandfather, and paternal uncle. The Lane family agreed to pay nearly $2.7 million.
On September 11, 2014, Lane, along with two older inmates, escaped from Allen Correctional Institution in Lima, Ohio. He was captured the following day, and the three men were transferred to a maximum security prison.
Details
The incident
Chardon High School was open in the morning before classes, and many students typically gathered in the cafeteria, some to get breakfast. Others waited there for a bus to classes at the related Auburn Career Center, a vocational school offering computer and other classes, and Lake Academy, a regional school for at-risk students referred for help with academic or behavioral issues.According to reports, a boy stood up in the cafeteria and began shooting at approximately 7:30 a.m., causing chaos.
The surveillance video showed a shooter, later identified as Thomas "T. J." Lane, shooting four male students at one table with a handgun; he wounded another. Fleeing the school, Lane shot a female student; he was chased out of the school by teacher Joseph Ricci and football coach Frank Hall. Lane was soon arrested by police outside the school near his car parked on Woodin Road.
Five students were hospitalized; three died of their injuries within two days. The severely injured Daniel Parmertor, Russell King, and Demetrius Hewlin were flown by helicopter to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, approximately 31 miles by road. Joy Rickers and Nick Walczak were taken to local Hillcrest Hospital. A sixth student, Nate Mueller, was superficially injured by a bullet grazing his right ear and did not need hospital treatment.
Murders
At noon on February 27, 2012, Chardon Police Chief Tim McKenna announced in a news conference that one of the victims had died. A spokeswoman for Cleveland's MetroHealth Medical Center identified him as 16-year-old Daniel Parmertor, a high school junior. His family issued a statement requesting that their privacy be respected. Parmertor had been in the cafeteria to wait for a bus to the Auburn Career Center vocational school in nearby Concord Township, where he studied computer science. He intended to work with computers.At 12:42 a.m. the next day, Russell King Jr., 17, was pronounced brain dead at MetroHealth Medical Center. King, a junior, studied alternative energy technologies. He was enrolled at both Chardon High School and at the Auburn Career Center, and was also waiting for the bus. King's family released a statement thanking the public for support and offering sympathy to the families of other victims. They said that King's organs would be donated, as he had wished.
On February 28, 2012, Demetrius Hewlin, 16, the third student transferred to MetroHealth, was reported to have died. His family expressed their sorrow in a statement to the press. Friends of Hewlin said that he liked to work out and wanted to be on the football team. Hewlin's mother, Phyllis Ferguson, in an interview with ABC News, said of her son, "He wasn't a morning person and he was late for school. But that one day he wasn't late. We were running a little late, but we weren't late enough. But it's okay. It's in God's hands. Let His will be done." When questioned about what she would say to the assailant, she said that she would forgive him, because most school shooters did not know what they were doing. She said that her son's organs would be donated, and that she had learned one recipient was a child who was within days of death without a transplant.
Other victims
Seventeen-year-old Nick Walczak was shot four times, in the arm, neck, cheek, and back. He was taken to Hillcrest Hospital. Joy Rickers, 18, was released from Hillcrest Hospital on February 28 after being treated for a gunshot wound to the buttocks. Nate Mueller, who was not hospitalized, was nicked in his right ear by a bullet. Students Nate Mueller and Nick Walczak were waiting in the cafeteria with King and Parmertor for the bus to their school.Teacher actions
After the shooting, students praised two teachers, Frank Hall and Joseph Ricci, as heroes. Students expressed thanks to them for their "courageous actions" on Twitter. Hall was said to have charged at the shooter, who was aiming his gun at him. A student said that Hall frequently spoke of his caring for the students, which was shown by his actions.Ricci had just started his math class when he heard shots and ordered his students to "lock down". Hearing moaning outside the classroom, Ricci put on a bulletproof vest, opened the door, and dragged wounded student Nick Walczak into the classroom, where he administered first aid. Walczak's family credits Ricci with saving their son's life. A student described these teachers as "two of the greatest leaders in our school."
Perpetrator
Thomas Michael "T. J." Lane III was identified as the suspect by authorities late on February 27. Because he was a juvenile, authorities were reluctant to release his name; however, CBS News had reported in the afternoon that law enforcement officials had surrounded a house belonging to Thomas Michael Lane Jr., the suspect's father.In their investigation, police also searched the home of Lane's maternal grandparents, Jack Nolan and his wife, in Chardon Township. Lane did not live there but frequently visited on weekends. The residence, along with other properties owned by the Lane family, was searched extensively on the day of the shooting. A nearby forest, which neighbors said the Lane children used for target practice, was also combed.
At the time of the shooting, Lane was taking classes as a sophomore at Lake Academy, an alternative school in nearby Willoughby. The school, which is also known as the Lake County Educational Service Center, served 55 students in February 2012. They were referred there from public schools in the region because of academic or behavioral needs. Students who complete their educations at Lake Academy graduate with their classmates at the sending schools.
According to student witnesses, Lane had a personal rivalry with King, one of his victims. Other student witnesses said that Lane appeared to aim specifically at King that morning, indicating that he was the first to be shot of the students at his table. The students said that King had previously threatened to beat Lane up, and that Lane had taken up weightlifting in the previous year to prepare to fight King.
Four of the five victims at King's table were students at the Auburn Career Center, a vocational school. Lane and the Auburn students regularly took the same bus from Chardon to their other schools; Lake Academy was the farthest from the home school of Chardon. Lane had known some of the victims from middle school.
There were rumors that a warning about the shooting had been posted on Twitter but this was not verified. News agencies published excerpts from the Facebook profile of a boy named "T. J. Lane". The profile did not give a location, but several of the user's friends were listed as being from Chardon. One entry in particular, dated December 30, 2011, caught attention: the last line read: "Die, all of you." According to a comment posted by Lane on January 20, 2012, he wrote that text as a class assignment.
Reactions of friends
A friend of Lane described him as "just a very normal teenage boy". She told CNN that she was in "complete shock" from the incident. She said that Lane often seemed sad, but appeared to be completely normal. Another friend said that Lane was regularly teased at school, which made Lane "put a wall around himself" and refuse to divulge personal information. A third student told reporters that Lane had come from "a really broken-down home". He was said to be a quiet person who could be nice to others if he felt comfortable with them.Students at Lake Academy denied that he had been bullied. They described him as friendly and nice, but not very talkative.