Ohio Shooting Suspect May Have Used Grandpa's Gun

TJ Lane, the 17-year-old suspected of killing three students and injuring two others at Chardon High School on Monday, may have opened fire using his grandfather's gun. "The gun was there the day before, in the barn," a neighbor tells the AP, citing a conversation he had with Lane's grandfather. The neighbor says Thomas Lane told him he went looking for the gun and discovered it missing, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. The absent .22 caliber revolver apparently matches the description of the pistol used in the shooting, a Ruger .22-caliber Mark III target pistol purchased legally at an Ohio gun shop in 2010.

Lane had a troubled family life, but things appeared to be turning around after he went to live with his other set of grandparents, and he was starting to do well at the alternative school he began attending a year and a half ago. The neighbor, who is also a retired sheriff, says that Thomas Lane taught his grandson "target shooting and how to handle the gun" but that he never actually saw TJ Lane use a gun. Lane, who admitted to the shooting, told authorities he stole the gun from his uncle, according to an official. Chardon High has been closed since the shooting but students are returning today, and they plan to walk to the school together, the Plain Dealer reports. (More TJ Lane stories.)