Americas

Americas

Number of injured in U.S. high school shooting increases to five

27 February 2012 19:44 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The number of injured in Monday ’s shooting incident at Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio, has increased to five, officials said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Officials with the local sheriff’s department confirmed there were at least five people injured in the shooting earlier in the morning, and all of them are students. The victims were found in three locations inside the school. Earlier reports indicated there were four injured.

The shooting occurred earlier in the morning, and gunfire was reported inside the high school cafeteria just after 7:30 a.m. local time. Joseph Bergant II, Chardon Local Schools superintendent, said the suspect was a lone gunman and has been taken into police custody.

Other reports indicated a teacher chased the student gunman from the building. The sheriff says the teen turned himself in to bystanders off site from the school in Chardon Township at about 9 a.m. The Chardon Police Department, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies were at the scene and a medical helicopter was also sent there.

The conditions of the injured students have not yet been released. Officials said there were four boys and one girl who were hit. Three of the victims were taken to Metro Hospital in Cleveland by Life Flight. Two others were taken to Hillcrest Hospital.

Chardon, a city of about 5,100 resident, is about 30 miles east of Cleveland. The high school has about 1,100 students.

All classes in schools across the district had been canceled. Chardon Local Schools’ community coordinator Ellen Ondrey said the school was in "crisis mode."

She said students at the high school and middle school had already started their day and bus runs for elementary school kids were stopped. Students who were already at the high school barricaded themselves in classrooms as the school was placed in lockdown.

Students were evacuated from the school five at a time. Bergant said high school students were evacuated to Maple Elementary School where parents were picking up their children.

The deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history occurred in 1999 at Columbine High School in Colorado, where two senior students killed 12 students and one teacher. The pair then committed suicide.