A teenager serving a life sentence for shooting dead three Cleveland-area high school students in 2012 was caught about 100 yards from the Ohio prison's perimeter fence he had scaled to escape just hours earlier, officials said on Friday, according to The Associated Press.
T.J. Lane, 19, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole last year for the attack at Chardon High School, escaped with inmates Clifford Opperud and Lindsey Bruce from the Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution in Lima, northwestern Ohio, warden Kevin Jones told reporters at a news conference, the AP reported.
Chardon, a small town near Cleveland, is about 200 miles (320 km) east of the prison, according to the AP.
Lane was originally arrested shortly after the February 2012 school attack and confessed to firing 10 rounds from a .22-caliber pistol at students in the school cafeteria that killed Demetrius Hewlin, 16, Russell King Jr., 17, and Daniel Parmertor, 16, according to the AP.
Lane's former attorney, Ian Friedman, warned that Lane could be dangerous and was one of the few maximum security prisoners at the facility and said he had recently lost an appeal, according to the AP.
Lane was arrested without incident and Bruce was also recaptured near the prison on Thursday, Jones said. the AP reported. The 45-year-old Opperud remains at large, he said.
"Obviously, I'm not happy that this happened," Jones said at the news conference outside the facility, according to the AP.
Prison officials and police, backed by a helicopter using infrared detection equipment, launched an "extensive manhunt" in the area and warned residents not to let strangers into their homes or to pick up hitchhikers, the AP reported.
"The last several hours have been very difficult as we come to grips with this situation," Chardon schools superintendent Michael Hanlon said at a news conference early Friday after Lane was caught, according to the AP.
