{"id":33649,"date":"2016-03-02T09:03:16","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T17:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/boys-hearing-gives-no-clue-on-ohio-school-shooting-motive\/"},"modified":"2016-03-02T09:03:16","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T17:03:16","slug":"boys-hearing-gives-no-clue-on-ohio-school-shooting-motive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/boys-hearing-gives-no-clue-on-ohio-school-shooting-motive\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy’s hearing gives no clue on Ohio school shooting motive"},"content":{"rendered":"

HAMILTON, Ohio \u2014<\/strong> A 14-year-old boy accused of shooting students in a school cafeteria denied charges including attempted murder on Tuesday, while the sheriff in the southwest Ohio county urged that he be prosecuted as an adult and that all schools step up security.<\/p>\n

The boy is charged in Butler County with attempted murder, felonious assault, inducing panic and making terroristic threats. Sitting at the defense table with his ankles shackled, he was silent and kept his head down as a prosecutor read the complaint against him, alleging he took a loaded handgun into school, fired \u201cseveral shots, hitting two students,\u201d causing a lockdown and bringing \u201ca huge law enforcement presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Ed Perry entered a denial of the charges, the juvenile court equivalent of a not guilty plea, and a magistrate ordered that the suspect remain in juvenile detention pending a hearing April 5.<\/p>\n

Perry and the boy\u2019s supporters declined to comment afterward. One apparent relative told reporters \u201cyou have no idea\u201d about what the family is going through, but wouldn\u2019t say anything else or give a name.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Richard Jones said authorities have interviewed the youth and believe they know a motive, but they won\u2019t reveal it while their investigation is continuing. He said the youth apparently had a .380-caliber handgun obtained from a family member for \u201csome time,\u201d including all morning inside the school before he allegedly jumped up from a cafeteria table and opened fire.<\/p>\n

Two students were shot and two others hurt, possibly by shrapnel or while running away, authorities said. All were expected to recover.<\/p>\n

In a recorded call, a 911 caller who sounded like a young person reporting the shooting immediately identified the suspect by name. Breathing heavily, the unidentified caller told a dispatcher: \u201cHe just pulled out his gun and started shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones said he is recommending to the prosecutor that he seek to have the case moved to adult court because of the serious nature of the charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat may sound harsh, but you have to send a message to the kids,\u201d Jones told The Associated Press, saying students need to realize that using guns isn\u2019t like playing video games. He also said many young people and some staffers have likely been traumatized by the chaotic scene.<\/p>\n

The Butler County prosecutor\u2019s office indicated it will explore options for handling the case, but hasn\u2019t made any decision. Authorities have said they don\u2019t believe the youth had a criminal record, which would be a factor for a judge deciding whether to keep him in the juvenile system to focus on rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

Students were eating in the cafeteria when the shooting happened around 11:30 a.m. Monday, Jones said. The youth threw down his gun as he ran from the school and was soon arrested near the school with the help of a Middletown police K-9 unit, he said.<\/p>\n

A sheriff\u2019s deputy stationed in the school had just been in the cafeteria, said Jones, who said the shooting underscores the need for every school to have such a police presence and to allow specially trained staff members to be armed, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could have been much worse,\u201d Jones said, adding it that while it was the first school shooting in memory in his county, there have been many lockdowns in recent months after threats were received.<\/p>\n

The students who were shot were 14 and 15 years old and were taken to a hospital where they were in stable condition, investigators said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Kantele Franko in Columbus contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Dan Sewell at http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/dansewell<\/p>\n

To see some of his other recent stories: http:\/\/bigstory.ap.org\/content\/dan-sewell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HAMILTON, Ohio \u2014 A 14-year-old boy accused of shooting students in a school cafeteria denied charges including attempted murder on Tuesday, while the sheriff in the southwest Ohio county urged that he be prosecuted as an adult and that all schools step up security. The boy is charged in Butler County with attempted murder, felonious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-33649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33649"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}