- "He just fired two quick shots," witness says
- A teacher apparently chased the suspect out of Chardon High School, police said
- Police said they arrested the suspect a short time later in Chardon Township
- One died and four were wounded in the shooting, law enforcement officials said
(CNN) -- Sorrow and disbelief replaced the chaos of Monday morning's school shooting in Chardon, Ohio, as residents and investigators tried to sort out what prompted a young man to openb fire on a table of students in the school cafeteria, killing one and wounding four others.
"I just can't believe it. I don't think it's real," said student Danny Komertz, who witnessed the shooting. "And I just, it kills me that I saw someone hiding, and now that someone is now dead."
The gunman, whom police said was a juvenile, opened fire in the cafeteria of Chardon High School just as the school day was getting started about 7:30 a.m., according to police. Witnesses said he walked up to a table of four students he may have known and began shooting.
Police said they arrested the suspect a short time later in Chardon Township, a community of about 5,000 people 30 miles east of Cleveland.
Police Chief Tim McKenna declined to identify the suspect, while school Superintendent Joseph Bergant said only that he was a student. But the the Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland cited student Nate Mueller, who was slightly wounded in the shooting, in identifying the suspect as student T.J. Lane.
The fatally wounded student was identified by the hospital that treated him as Daniel Parmertor.
"We are shocked by this senseless tragedy," Parmertor's family said in a statement released by MetroHealth Medical Center. "Danny was a bright young boy who had a bright future ahead of him. The family is torn by this loss."
Parmertor and two other wounded students were taken by helicopter to MetroHealth, hospital representative Shannon Mortland said in a statement. Mortland did not provide details on their conditions.
Two other students injured in the shooting, one boy and one girl, were taken to Hillcrest Hospital, spokeswoman Heather Phillips said. One was in serious condition, and the other was in stable condition, she said.
A student at Chardon High, Evan Erasmus, said the victims were Chardon students who attended a vocational school in Auburn, Ohio, and were waiting for a bus to take them there.
Police recovered a handgun and gave it to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for examination, that agency said.
A law enforcement source said the Geauga County sheriff's office and federal agents were executing search warrants in the case, but the official did not provide locations.
The Plain Dealer reported that Mueller said he was sitting with others at a table in the cafeteria when Lane approached them.
"My friends were crawling on the floor, and one of my friends was bent over the table, and he was shot," the newspaper quoted Mueller as saying. "It was almost like a firecracker went off. I turned around and saw (Lane) standing with a gun, and I saw him take a shot."
Mueller said he ran from the building, hid and called police, according to the newspaper.
Erasmus said he had just arrived in for his English class when the shooting happened.
"All of a sudden, one of the administrators got on the announcements and yelled, 'Lockdown!' " Erasmus said. "All of a sudden, all the doors started slamming. You could hear them slam. And we all turned off the lights, and we headed towards the corner."
Komertz said he heard a pop as he was walking with friends. He looked up to see a boy he did not recognize holding a gun, pointing it at a group of four students.
"He just fired two quick shots at them," Komertz said. "I saw one student fall, and I saw the other hiding, trying to get cover underneath the table."
Komertz said he started to run when he saw the gun but heard a total of five shots.
A student who identified herself as Victoria told CNN affiliate WJW that she heard a boom and turned to look into the cafeteria to see the student holding a silver handgun, standing 10 to 15 feet from a table of students.
"He started walking closer and closer. It was just like, 'Boom, boom, boom, boom,'" she said.
Multiple calls reporting a shooting at the school flooded into the police dispatch center beginning at 7:38 a.m., just as school was about to get under way, McKenna said.
After police got word from a dispatcher that a teacher had chased the suspect out of the school, officers went inside, soon followed by paramedics to help the injured students, McKenna said.
It was unclear exactly how the suspect was captured. Initial reports from police indicated that the suspect may have turned himself in to bystanders, but McKenna did not mention that during the brief midday news conference. Instead, he said officers "came up with the suspect" after starting a search shortly after the shooting.
"I want to assure the community of Chardon that we are safe," McKenna said.
Later Monday morning, investigators took over the school and were collecting evidence after students had been evacuated to nearby Maple Elementary School, said Lt. John Hiscox of the sheriff's office.
School administrators later called off school for the day, bringing in grief counselors Monday afternoon and scheduling a candlelight service at a nearby church Tuesday.
"We certainly hope those families know they're in our thoughts and prayers," said Bergant, the superintendent.
Parents eager to retrieve their children hurried to school buildings shortly after the shooting, forming long lines as school officials and police checked identification before releasing students. SWAT team members stood guard outside the school, allowing only a few parents inside at a time, enhancing what was a surreal scene for many.
"This stuff doesn't happen here at Chardon. Everybody's a little upset," said one parent who was preparing to pick up his daughter, a 10th-grader who had been evacuated to Maple Elementary School.
Parents and children frequently embraced and cried when reunited.
Teresa Hunt said she exchanged about 50 texts with her 18-year-old daughter, a senior at the high school. They began about 7:45 a.m., minutes after the shooting was reported. Hunt said her daughter hunkered down with her class inside their classroom, staying clear of the door. She said they could hear police officers running down the hall.
"They're terrified. She was crying. Her anxiety was way up," Hunt said.
"I did ask her, about the third or fourth text in, if she had any indication that something was going to break out," Hunt said. "She said, 'No, this was sudden. I had heard nothing.' Her friends had heard nothing also."
Erasmus said he believed that frequent lockdown drills and the quick response of school authorities helped keep the situation from becoming worse.
There is a long history of deadly violence on school campuses, ranging from incidents in which students stab each other or shoot staff members to mass murders like the ones at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School.
In April 1999, two teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher before they killed themselves in the library at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
Gunman Seung-Hui Cho unleashed one of the deadliest campus attacks in American history at Virginia Tech in April 2007, killing 32 students and staff members. Two handguns were found near his body after the 23-year-old senior finally ended his rampage by killing himself.
Not all school killings are carried out by students. A 32-year-old man, Charles Roberts IV, took 11 girls hostage at a small Amish school in Pennsylvania in October 2006 and killed five of them. The other six were wounded before Roberts killed himself.
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