Teen gets life for gun attack at school

A teenager has been jailed for life without parole for shooting dead three students in a US school cafe.

TJ Lane, 18, wore a T-shirt with “killer” scrawled across it and smirked and gestured obscenely when he appeared in court in Ohio.

He had pleaded guilty last month to shooting at students in Feb 2012 at Chardon High School, east of Cleveland. Investigators say he still does not know why he did it.

Before the case went to adult court last year, a judge in the juvenile court ruled Lane was mentally competent to stand trial despite evidence he suffers from hallucinations, psychosis and fantasies.

During the hearing Lane unbuttoned his blue shirt to reveal the T-shirt reading “killer”, which the prosecutor noted was similar to one he wore during the shooting.

At one point, he swivelled around in his chair toward the gallery where his own family members and those of the dead teenagers were sitting. He spoke only one sentence.

“The hand that pulls the trigger that killed your sons now masturbates to the memory,” he said, then cursed at and gestured obscenely toward the victims’ relatives.

Dina Parmertor, mother of one of the victims, Daniel, called Lane “a pathetic excuse for a human being” and wished upon him “an extremely, slow torturous death”.

She said she has nightmares and her family has been physically sick over the crimes.

“From now on, he will only be a killer,” she said, as Lane’s smile widened. “I want him to feel my anger toward him.”

Lane took a .22 pistol and a knife to the school and fired 10 shots.

Lane was at Chardon waiting for a bus to the alternative school he attended, for students who have not done well in traditional settings.