Gunman kills student, wounds 4 at Ohio school

Pupil opens fire at school cafeteria before being chased out the building by a teacher and later turning himself in.

By REUTERS
empty classroom school_311 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
empty classroom school_311
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
CHARDON, Ohio - A student opened fire with a handgun in the cafeteria of an Ohio high school east of Cleveland on Monday, killing one student and wounding four others before he was chased from the building by a teacher and gave himself up, law enforcement officials said.
One of the students shot at Chardon High School has died, Chardon Police Chief Tim McKenna said. Four boys and one girl had been hospitalized after the morning shooting, according to the Geauga County Sheriff's Department.
The Ohio shooting is the worst at a US high school in 11 months and the worst in Ohio since late 2007, according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Emergency vehicles rushed to the scene as students streamed from the building to meet parents. The entire school district was closed for the day.
"All of our high school students are now safe," Joseph Bergant, superintendent of Chardon schools said on local television. Chardon is about 56 km east of Cleveland.
Bergant said the suspected shooter was in custody.
The shootings started in the cafeteria and the suspect was chased by a teacher out of the building, the sheriff's office said. He later turned himself in to a bystander, it said.
Three of the male students shot are believed to be from Auburn Career Academy, a vocational school with 700 juniors and seniors, taken from 11 surrounding school districts including Chardon, said Superintendent Maggie Lynch.
Two of the boys are 17, and a third was 16, all juniors, she said.
Chardon resident Teresa Hunt said on local television she had been receiving messages from her daughter, an 18-year-old senior at the high school. Hunt said her daughter heard five shots in the school cafeteria at about 7:30 a.m. local time.