Coach says he prayed with dying students

CHARDON, Ohio – An assistant football coach credited with chasing a teenage gunman from an Ohio school said Thursday that he wanted families of the three children slain in a shooting spree to know that he comforted the teens as they lay dying.

“I want you to know I was with them. I prayed with them. I wiped their tears and I know God was with them,” an emotional Frank Hall said during a news conference shortly after the 17-year-old suspect was charged.

T.J. Lane was charged Thursday with killing three students, the first step in proceedings that could see him charged as an adult and facing the possibility of life without parole if convicted.

The charges accuse Lane of killing three students and wounding two others in the shooting Monday morning at Chardon High School, about 30 miles east of Cleveland.

No motive has been determined. Prosecutor David Joyce has said that victims were selected at random and that Lane is someone “who’s not well.”

Killed were Demetrius Hewlin, 16, Russell King Jr., 17, and Daniel Parmertor, 16.

Two other students were wounded. Nick Walczak remains in serious condition. An 18-year-old girl was released from the hospital Tuesday.