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Feb 27, 2012
One dead, 4 injured in Ohio high school shooting

By Douglas Stanglin, USA TODAY Updated 5m ago

One student was killed and four injured after a teenage gunman opened fired in a cafeteria at an Ohio high school.

The shooting occurred around 7:30 a.m. at Chardon High School in northeastern Ohio, about 30 miles east of Cleveland. Chardon is a city of about 5,100.

Update at 12:05 p.m. ET: One of the five students injured in the shooting at Chardon high school in Ohio was killed, Police Chief Timothy McKenna tells reporters.

"That's the sad news for all of us today," McKenna says.

Update at 11:22 a.m. ET: The sheriff tells WKYC-TV that the suspected shooter, a male student, turned himself in to bystanders off site from the school. A teacher had chased the him from the building, the TV station reports.

WKYC also reports that the victims were found at three locations inside the high school.

Update at 11:18 a.m. ET: Hillcrest Hospital spokeswoman Heather Phillips tells CNN that two students, one male and one female, were taken there. She says one is in stable condition and one is in serious condition. She declined to identify the students, citing the requests of the families.

Update at 11:14 a.m. ET: Chardon High student Heather Ziska tells the Associated Press she was just feet away when a gunman opened fire. Heather, 17, says she was in the cafeteria at about 7:30 a.m. when she and other students began hearing popping noises in a nearby hallway. She says she then saw a boy with a gun who she recognized as a fellow student come into the cafeteria and open fire.

Students exit Chardon High School today in Chardon, Ohio, following a shooting that left five students injured.CAPTIONBy Tony Dejak, APShe says she and several others immediately ran outside, while other friends ran into a nearby middle school and others locked themselves in a teachers' lounge.

Update at 10:47 a.m. ET: Sheriff Daniel McClelland says the shooter had already fled when officers arrived at the school. He was apprehended "some distance from the school" and at least some of the wounded were airlifted to local hospitals.

Update at 10:41 a.m. ET: Vicki Anderson, spokeswoman for the FBI, tells CNN that FBI SWAT team members responded to the scene. She says they assisted local authorities in ensuring the building was clear. She says five students were wounded but she does not know their condition.

Update at 10:09 a.m. ET: A parent, Jeannette Roth, tells the Cleveland Plain Dealer that her son, Joshua, a junior, was in the cafeteria when the shooting occurred. Joshua tells her that students were eating breakfast when a boy "stood up and starting shooting, and then it was chaos."

Update at 9:59 a.m. ET: WKYC quotes the FBI as confirming that the suspected gunman -- believed to be a student -- is in custody.

Update at 9:54 a.m. ET: One parent, Teresa Hunt, tells CNN that she heard about the shooting in a text from her daughter around 7:45 a.m.

Her daughter reported that she and other students were locked in a classroom but heard five shots down the hallway.

The daughter, whose name was not given, said the shots came from the cafeteria at the other end of the building and down the hall from her classroom.

"I believe she was sitting on the floor with another friend," Hunt says of her daughter. "The last time I talked to her she was crying, she was trembling."

Update at 9:42 a.m. ET: School Superintendent Joseph Bergant II tells WKYC-TV that the alleged shooter is in custody.

Television news footage showed anxious parents escorting children away from a school building and multiple ambulances could be seen outside.

Update at 9:37 a.m. ET: The Cleveland Plain Dealer quotes a local official as confirming that four students were injured --three boys and a girl. The newspaper says four ambulances were waiting at the door of the high school.

Update at 9:35 a.m. ET: WKYC reports that the lockdown at Chardon High School has been lifted.

Update at 9:29 a.m. ET: Officials say students were shot at a high school in the Ohio and a suspect is in custody.

Update at 9:23 a.m. ET: The Cleveland Plain Dealer, quoting a waiting parent, Jessica Bryant, reports that the shooting apparently occurred in the cafeteria. Bryant tells the paper that her daughter, Allison, witnessed the shooting and informed her by text message.

Update at 9:13 a.m. ET: WKYC reports that two or three of the wounded have been taken by Metro LifeFlight from the parking lot of the nearby Wal-Mart. WKYC says there are reports of students have barricaded themselves in various rooms throughout the school.

Update at 9 a.m. ET: A sheriff's office is confirming a shooting at a northeastern Ohio high school, the Associated Press reports.

Civil deputy Erin Knife with the Geauga County Sheriff's Office says the shooting was reported around 7:30 a.m. today at Chardon High School.

Knife says a single person suspected in the shooting has left the school but is not in custody. Schools in the area are locked down.

Chardon is about 30 miles east of Cleveland.