The one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan is less than two weeks away, but details about the nuclear meltdown that happened that tragic day are just beginning to emerge. On Feb. 27, a news helicopter was allowed close enough to get a good glimpse of the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant. Today, a report revealed the chaos between Japan’s leaders during the crisis. “The normal lines of authority completely collapsed,” Tetsuro Fukuyama, the prime minister’s adviser, told investigators.
CBS News correspondent Lucy Craft reported that in the hours after the tsunami struck the nuclear plant, Japanese officials huddled in an emergency bunker struggled to grasp the size of the catastrophe. “As we listened to our top nuclear experts, we politicians had no idea what they were talking about. Was anyone going to suffer radiation contamination? Would this be another Chernobyl or Three Mile Island? No one could give us a straight answer,” Fukuyama recalled in the report. After 300 interviews with officials and nuclear experts, the report said government was partially at fault for not having an emergency plan if a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck the country.
However, investigators concluded the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric, was to blame for the majority of the problems. “They were astonishingly unprepared for this nuclear accident,” lead investigator Youichi Funabash told CBS News. It seems that Tokyo Electric was unprepared for a power failure. Without electricity, the cores of the reactor couldn’t stay cool, and it triggered explosions and meltdowns. With little information from the plant, Fukuyama said that the government thought that a nuclear meltdown was impending, and feared that a massive cloud of radiation would force the evacuation of 30 million people in the Tokyo region.
As a last-ditch effort, the Japanese government discussed “suicide squad” made up of men over 65 years old to ascertain the damage first hand. Fukuyama said he would lead the group. “Terrified doesn’t begin to describe how we felt,” Fukuyama told investigators months after the scare. A “no go” zone still remains around the plant because radiation levels are too high. Clean up at the plant is estimated to take 40 years. “When we learned the reactors had in fact melted down, I was overwhelmed, by our inability,” he added.
CHARDON, Ohio — (DMN) – Two students are dead, three others remain hospitalized after a shooting at Chadron High School, 30 miles east of Cleveland, Ohio this morning. The shootings occurred just before the start of classes Monday morning around 7:40 a.m. in the area of the school’s cafeteria. Another teenager, described as an outcast who may have been bullied is in police custody. The alleged gunman has been identified as Thomas “TJ” Lane, 17.
Law enforcement sources tell CBS News that, a day or two ago, the suspect told classmates something of his plans, but those classmates didn’t take him seriously. Another student who saw the attack close-up said it appeared that the gunman targeted a group of students sitting at a cafeteria table and that the one who was killed was trying to duck under the table. Panicked students screamed and ran through the halls after gunfire broke out at the start of the school day at 1,100-student Chardon High, about 30 miles from Cleveland. Teachers locked down their classrooms as they had been trained to do during drills, and students took cover as they waited for the all-clear.
Thomas “T.J.” Lane was arrested in connection with the shooting.
One teacher was said to have dragged a wounded student into his classroom for protection. And distressed parents thronged the streets around the school as they heard from students via text message and cellphone long before official word came of the attack. One of the students slain, Daniel Parmertor, was an aspiring computer repairman who was shot while waiting for the bus for his daily 15-minute ride to a vocational center. His teacher at the Auburn Career School had no idea why Parmertor, “a very good young man, very quiet,” had been targeted, said Auburn superintendent Maggie Lynch. The name of the second victim killed has not been released.
Three students were transported to MetroHealth Medical Center. The third shooting victim at MetroHealth Medical Center is listed in critical condition. The remaining student victims, a 17-year-old male and an 18-year-old female, were taken to Hillcrest Hospital. The male was last listed in serious condition and the female was reported to be in stable condition. The victims were in the school’s cafeteria waiting for a bus for the Auburn Career Center when the shots were fired. According to a survivor, Lane attended Lake Academy for at-risk students.
Law enforcement sources say Lane turned himself in to bystanders off-site from the school in Chardon Township. A teacher is credited with chasing Lane from the building. Gunfire was reported inside the high school cafeteria just after 7:30 a.m. Students barricaded themselves in classrooms as the school was placed in lockdown. Students were evacuated from the school five at a time. The Superintendent says high school students were evacuated to Maple Elementary School where parents were picking up their children. The wounded were taken to a makeshift landing area in the parking lot of the nearby Walmart where they were placed on LifeFlight. All classes in the Chardon school district have been cancelled for today. A spokeswoman says the district’s schools will be closed on Tuesday as well. Grief counselors are on hand for students at Chardon Middle School from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m.
Lane being arrested by police.
Officers investigating the shooting blocked off a road in a heavily wooded area several miles from the school. Federal agents patrolled the muddy driveway leading to several spacious homes and ponds, while other officers walked a snowy hillside. A police dog was brought in. A U.S. official said that a preliminary report shows the suspect fired eight shots, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports. The FBI and local police have conducted an extensive search of the home where the suspected shooter lived. (The house belongs to the suspect’s grandparents.)
Agents were looking for computer files, phone records, notes and possible weapons, Orr reports. Police are trying to establish a motive for the shootings and are looking for evidence that could show how much planning went into the attack. They are looking through emails, social network postings, and other communications to determine what the suspect may have shared with friends or associates about his intent. One law enforcement source says the suspect “is cooperating” with police. Teacher Joe Ricci had just begun class when he heard shots and slammed the door to his classroom, yelling, “Lock down!” to students, according to Karli Sensibello, a student whose sister was in Ricci’s classroom.
A few minutes later, Ricci heard a student moaning outside, opened the door and pulled in student Nick Walczak who had been shot several times, Sensibello said in an email. Ricci comforted Walczak and let him use his cellphone to call his girlfriend and parents, Sensibello said. She said her sister was too upset to talk. Heather Ziska, 17, said she was in the cafeteria when she saw a boy she recognized as a fellow student come into the cafeteria and start shooting. She said she and several others immediately ran outside, while other friends ran into a middle school and others locked themselves in a teachers’ lounge. “Everybody just started running,” said 17-year-old Megan Hennessy, who was in class when she heard loud noises. “Everyone was running and screaming down the hallway.”
Rebecca Moser, 17, had just settled into her chemistry class when the school went into lockdown. The class of about 25 students ducked behind the lab tables at the back of the classroom, uncertain whether it was a drill. Text messages started flying inside and outside the school, spreading information about what was happening and what friends and family were hearing outside the building. “We all have cellphones, so people were constantly giving people updates — about what was going on, who the victims were, how they were doing,” Moser said. The school had no metal detectors, but current and past students said it had frequent security drills in case of a shooting. Anxious parents of high school students were told to go to an elementary school to pick up their children. Joe Bergant, superintendent of schools in Chardon, a town of about 5,100 people, said school was canceled Tuesday and grief counselors would be available to students and families. “If you haven’t hugged or kissed your kid in the last couple of days, take that time,” he said.
Alleged Chardon High School gunman grew up in troubled family hit by divorce, violence
A Cleveland television station is reporting that the family life of the alleged teen gunman at Chardon High School reveals a family life disrupted by divorce and violence. Geauga County Common Pleas Court records show the parents of Thomas “TJ” Lane III divorced in March 2002. One month later, in April 2002, Lane’s father, Thomas M. Lane Jr. was issued an indictment charging him with felonious assault, kidnapping and disrupting public service. The summons was sent to the address on Wilder Road in Chardon that was searched by police early Monday.
Lane does not own the property but records indicate it is owned by a family member. But just three months later, Lane was charged with violating a temporary restraining order. And in August, Lane was charged with attempted murder and a court order was issued prohibiting contact his wife other than visitation with his children. Finally, in October of 2002, Lane struck a plea deal and was sentenced on the assault and disruption charges, but the kidnapping charge was reduced to unlawful restraint and the attempted murder charge was eventually dropped. Lane was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released just nine months later in July 2003.
CBS News, CNN, WEWS, WKYC, WJW and WOIO contributed to this report.
A teenager described as an outcast at a suburban Cleveland high school opened fire in the cafeteria Monday, killing one student and wounding four others before being caught a short distance away, authorities said. A student at the school identified the suspected gunman to CBS News as T.J. Lane. A different student who saw the attack close-up said it appeared that the gunman targeted a group of students sitting at a cafeteria table and that the one who was killed was trying to duck under the table. Panicked students screamed and ran through the halls after gunfire broke out at the start of the school day at 1,100-student Chardon High, about 30 miles from Cleveland. Teachers locked down their classrooms as they had been trained to do during drills, and students took cover as they waited for the all-clear.
On Lane’s Facebook page, which has since been deleted, a number of his 153 Facebook friends list either Chardon High School as their school, or Chardon, Ohio, as their location, pegging this as the correct Facebook page of the school shooter, as reported by local students. In a Facebook post from December 30, 2011, Lane writes”Now! Feel death…Die all of you.” Students have described Lane as an outcast who was bullied by classmates. Nate Mueller, who was grazed by a gunshot on his top right ear, said that he was friends with Lane up until 8th grade, when “he got into the goth phase” — a reference to gothic culture witnessed by some of his Facebook postings.
For his employer, Lane lists “Free the Slaves” and for college and high school information, TJ lists quotes from the popular “Another Brick in the Wall” Pink Floyd song: “We don’t need no education; we don’t need no thought control.” As far as the “People Who Inspire TJ” section, he listed cats, David Icke, Credo Mutwa and surf, however, his sports section is a little more chilling, listing his favorite sports as “primitive hunting” and longboarding. Sad, in light of the fact that Daniel Parmenter lost his life in the Chardon High School shooting. Movies such as Fight Club, Let Me In, The Others are listed on Lane’s Facebook page as well.
As recent as February 19, 2012, TJ Lane shared a link to a video called Grimes by Vanessa. Other videos he shared included Blood on the Dance Floor “Bewitched” official music video featuring Lady Nogrady. Regarding TJ Lane’s Twitter page, there have been reports that Lane sent out a threatening tweet prior to the shootings, however, his Twitter account has been rumored to have been closed. Conflicting reports noted a Twitter photo that claimed to be “TJ Lane” holding two guns, however, commenters have claimed that they were not photos of the Chardon High School shooter.
Lane, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, is reported to have been arrested near his car a half-mile away, the FBI said. He was not immediately charged. The Geauga County Sheriff’s Office said that the suspect turned himself in after being chased out of the school by a teacher, CBS News has learned. FBI officials would not comment on a motive. And Police Chief Tim McKenna said authorities “have a lot of homework to do yet” in their investigation. But 15-year-old Danny Komertz, who witnessed the shooting, said the gunman was known as an outcast who had apparently been bullied. “I looked up and this kid was pointing a gun about 10 feet away from me to a group of four kids sitting at a table,” Komertz said. He said the gunman fired two shots quickly, and students scrambled for safety. One of them was “trying to get underneath the table, trying to hide, protecting his face.”
The slain student, Daniel Parmertor, was an aspiring computer repairman who was shot while waiting for the bus for his daily 15-minute ride to a vocational center. His teacher at the Auburn Career School had no idea why Parmertor, “a very good young man, very quiet,” had been targeted, said Auburn superintendent Maggie Lynch. “We are shocked by this senseless tragedy,” his family said in a statement. “Danny was a bright young boy who had a bright future ahead of him.” Parmertor’s teacher at Auburn Career School had no idea why Parmertor, “a very good young man, very quiet,” had been targeted, said Auburn superintendent Maggie Lynch.
Officers investigating the shooting blocked off a road in a heavily wooded area several miles from the school. Federal agents patrolled the muddy driveway leading to several spacious homes and ponds, while other officers walked a snowy hillside. A police dog was brought in. It wasn’t clear what they were looking for. The handgun allegedly used in the attack has been recovered and is now in the custody of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, where authorities are running a background trace on the weapon to determine its origin and ownership, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports. There is no word yet on the number of shots fired or the caliber of the bullet.
Teacher Joe Ricci had just begun class when he heard shots and slammed the door to his classroom, yelling, “Lock down!” to students, according to Karli Sensibello, a student whose sister was in Ricci’s classroom. A few minutes later, Ricci heard a student moaning outside, opened the door and pulled in student Nick Walczak who had been shot several times, Sensibello said in an email. Ricci comforted Walczak and let him use his cellphone to call his girlfriend and parents, Sensibello said. She said her sister was too upset to talk.
Heather Ziska, 17, said she was in the cafeteria when she saw a boy she recognized as a fellow student come into the cafeteria and start shooting. She said she and several others immediately ran outside, while other friends ran into a middle school and others locked themselves in a teachers’ lounge. “Everybody just started running,” said 17-year-old Megan Hennessy, who was in class when she heard loud noises. “Everyone was running and screaming down the hallway.” Rebecca Moser, 17, had just settled into her chemistry class when the school went into lockdown. The class of about 25 students ducked behind the lab tables at the back of the classroom, uncertain whether it was a drill.
Text messages started flying inside and outside the school, spreading information about what was happening and what friends and family were hearing outside the building. “We all have cellphones, so people were constantly giving people updates — about what was going on, who the victims were, how they were doing,” Moser said. The school had no metal detectors, but current and past students said it had frequent security drills in case of a shooting. Anxious parents of high school students were told to go to an elementary school to pick up their children. Joe Bergant, superintendent of schools in Chardon, a town of about 5,100 people, said school was canceled Tuesday and grief counselors would be available to students and families. “If you haven’t hugged or kissed your kid in the last couple of days, take that time,” he said.
CHADRON, Ohio — (DMN/CBS News) – A gunman opened fire inside a high school cafeteria at the start of the school day Monday, wounding five students, one of whom later died, authorities said. A suspect — believed to be a student — was arrested a short distance away. The suspect was taken into custody near his car about half a mile from the suburban Cleveland school, said FBI agent Vicki Anderson. The Geauga County Sheriff’s Office said that the suspect turned himself in after being chased out of the school by a teacher, CBS News reports.
At a news conference announcing the victim’s death, Chardon Police Chief Timothy McKenna said the suspect hasn’t been charged and his name isn’t being released because he is a juvenile. The sheriff’s office identified the victims as four male students and one female student, CBS News reports. Earlier, CBS affiliate WOIO-TV in Cleveland reported on air that a 17-year-old boy was listed in serious condition and an 18-year-old woman was in stable condition at the Cleveland Clinic’s Hillcrest Hospital in suburban Cleveland.
Students screamed and ran in panic through the halls when gunfire broke out around 7:30 a.m. at the 1,100-student Chardon High School. Heather Ziska, 17, said she was in the cafeteria when she and other students heard popping noises in the hall. She said she saw a boy she recognized as a fellow student come into the cafeteria and start shooting. She said she and several others immediately ran outside, while other friends ran into a middle school and others locked themselves in a teachers’ lounge. “Everybody just started running,” said 17-year-old Megan Hennessy, who was in class when she heard loud noises. “Everyone was running and screaming down the hallway.”
Television news footage showed anxious parents escorting children away from a school building, and ambulances could be seen outside. A spokeswoman for Cleveland’s MetroHealth System said a medical helicopter was dispatched to the high school. The sheriff’s office said that two students were taken to Hillcrest Hospital and an additional three students were taken to Cleveland’s MetroHealth Medical Center, CBS News reports. Students at the high school and a middle school had already started their day when the shooting happened, but bus runs for elementary school children were stopped. All classes in the district were canceled. Parents of high school students were told to go to an elementary school to pick up their children. Chardon, a city of about 5,100 people, is about 30 miles east of Cleveland.
ELKHART, Indiana — (DMN) – A former Indiana State Police post commander has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for misappropriating funds. Dallard Tackett was a State Police lieutenant in charge of the Indiana toll road in northern Indiana. Saying the place for someone who steals from his co-workers — especially when he is a supervisor — is the Department of Correction, not community corrections, Elkhart Superior Court 2 Judge Stephen Bowers sentenced Tackett to 20 years in the Department Of Corrections, with 10 suspended. Tackett also will have 10 years reporting probation when he is out of prison. In addition, Tackett was not fined, but he will have to pay $91,396.62 in restitution for his crimes.
Tackett resigned from the State Police in August 2010, as an investigation started to find out what happened to the missing funds from northern Indiana prosecutors. The money was meant for the Indiana State Police, but Tackett had the funds deposited into accounts he set up. Tackett pleaded guilty before Bowers in November, admitting to 17 different felonies in connection with the misappropriation of funds. Tackett, 60, admitted to six counts of forgery, one of official misconduct and 10 of theft. He agreed to the restitution. With good behavior time, Tackett could be released from prison in 5 years.
CHADRON, Ohio — (DMN) – A gunman opened fire inside a high school’s cafeteria at the start of the school day Monday, wounding five students, officials said. A suspect was in custody. FBI agent Scott Wilson said there was one suspected shooter. He wouldn’t discuss the extent of the students’ injuries. The Geauga County Sheriff’s Office told CBS News that the suspect turned himself in after being chased out of the school by a teacher. FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson said Monday the shooter was taken into custody near his car about half a mile away from the high school.
The sheriff’s office identified the victims as four male students and one female student. Earlier, Civil Deputy Erin Knife of the sheriff’s office said the shooting was reported around 7:30 a.m. at the 1,100-student Chardon High School about 30 miles east of Cleveland. Television news footage showed anxious parents escorting children away from a school building, and ambulances could be seen outside. “We don’t have any status updates on the students,” Chardon schools spokeswoman Ellen Ondrey told The Associated Press. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to them. We are very concerned.”
A spokeswoman for Cleveland’s MetroHealth System said a medical helicopter was dispatched to the high school. The sheriff’s office told CBS News that two students were taken to the Cleveland Clinic’s Hillcrest Hospital in suburban Cleveland and an additional three students were taken to Cleveland’s MetroHealth Medical Center. Geauga County Sheriff Daniel McClelland said victims were shot in three different locations and a handgun was used in the shooting.
Teresa Hunt told Cleveland Television Station WEWS that her daughter said that she heard five shots fired in the cafeteria at about 7:30 a.m. Hunt has been texting with her daughter who said students are scared. She said that her daughter told her four people were shot. Chardon student Evan Erasmus told WEWS that a student tweeted that he was going to bring a gun to school but not one took him seriously. Lake County Sheriff’s Department said it sent SWAT unit and truck unit to Chardon.
A command scene was setup at a local Walmart where Bob Herp, a Chardon trauma nurse, said helicopters were on the ground. Nicole Nichols told NewsChannel5 that her daughter goes to Chardon Middle School. They were told classes would be canceled today, and the high school students were being moved to the middle school. Chardon School District sent a voicemail to parents that schools are closed and high school students were being moved to the middle school. Just before 9:30 a.m., Governor John Kasich tweeted: “Pls pray for wounded Chardon HS students, their families, and their community; appears things under control now”
FBI agents, Geauga County sheriff deputies and police gathered at a home in Chardon following a shooting at the high school Monday morning. Cleveland television stations are reporting that police are at the home of a relative of the alleged gunman. At a late morning news conference, McClelland said that three of the injured students were transported by Life Flight to MetroHealth Medical Center and two others were taken to Hillcrest Hospital. A spokesperson for Hillcrest Hospital says that its facility admitted two of the victims — a 17-year-old male and an 18-year-old female. As of late Monday morning, the teenage boy was in serious condition and the teenage girl was stable.
WKYC, WEWS, WJW an CBS News contributed to this report
Students are seen outside Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio, Feb. 27, 2012, after a shooting at the school. (CBS)
CHARDON, Ohio — (DMN/CBS News) – Gunfire at a high school outside Cleveland injured a number of students Monday morning, and at least one suspect has been taken into custody, officials said. FBI agent Scott Wilson said that there was one suspected shooter, who is in custody. He said four students were wounded in the shooting but wouldn’t discuss the extent of the students’ injuries. “CBS This Morning” correspondent John Miller reports that at least one of the students was critically injured.
The shooting was reported around 7:30 a.m. at the 1,100-student Chardon High School about 30 miles east of Cleveland, said Civil Deputy Erin Knife of the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office. WOIO-TV in Cleveland reports the shootings happened in the cafeteria before classes started for the day. Television news footage showed anxious parents escorting children away from a school building, and ambulances could be seen outside. WOIO-TV reports the high school was evacuated and students were taken to an elementary school to be picked up by their parents. Students on school buses were dropped off back at their homes.
A spokeswoman for Cleveland’s MetroHealth System said a medical helicopter was dispatched to the high school. Schools in the area were locked down. Bob Herp, a Chardon trauma nurse, was at a command scene at a local Wal-Mart store where he said helicopters were on the ground. Chardon is a city of about 5,100 residents.
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However, investigators concluded the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric, was to blame for the majority of the problems. “They were astonishingly unprepared for this nuclear accident,” lead investigator Youichi Funabash told CBS News. It seems that Tokyo Electric was unprepared for a power failure. Without electricity, the cores of the reactor couldn’t stay cool, and it triggered explosions and meltdowns. With little information from the plant, Fukuyama said that the government thought that a nuclear meltdown was impending, and feared that a massive cloud of radiation would force the evacuation of 30 million people in the Tokyo region.
