high school in chardon, ohio, that's near cleveland. one student dead, four others wounded. two of the wounded students are in critical condition, one is serious, and another is stable. yet another student showed a reporter from wkyc where one of the bullets grazed him. >> yeah, right here on my ear. i was actually -- as i was turning away from the gunman, he caught me right on the ear. >> reporter: how's your hearing, how close was he when he fired that shot? >> we were the table right next to him, he was within three feet of us. three of the victims were at my table as well. >> the student we just saw identified the gunman as t.j. lane, seen here in a picture from his facebook page. authorities won't confirm the identity other than to say he's a student and juvenile. the shooting happened in the school cafeteria at 7:38 this morning. one of the teachers chased the gunman out of the school and ultimately caught him. frantic parents answering phone calls and text messages from their children rushed to the school. >> she texted me and said there's been a shooting and i'm in a closet, but don't worry. i just said keep texting me, so that's what we're doing, i keep texting her. >> cnn is outside the school in chard chardon, ted, what are we learning about the alleged shooter? >> reporter: well, john, we're learning this is a young man that became a bit of a recluse in recent years, according to his friends. we heard from one witness/friend who said he used to hang out with him in middle school, elementary school, but in the past few years, he stuck to himself and started dressing in black clothing, sort of that goth look. we've also heard stories from witnesses he may have been teased at some level because of that. that's not been confirmed by authorities. as you mentioned, they are not even confirming his name because he is a juvenile. he was chased out of the school, he did give himself up right away, apparently. he is in custody tonight. >> ted, bring us up to date about what we know about the student who sadly was killed and the wounded students this evening. >> reporter: well, the student that was killed was a 16-year-old. he was on his way to a vocational school, a lot of the students that go to this school take classes at a vocational school. he was on his way there, waiting for a bus when he was gunned down. his family issued a statement saying they are utterly shocked, asking for their privacy. at one moment they drop off their 16-year-old at school and within an hour learn he's being air lifted to a cleveland hospital where he eventually died. we did hear from a family member of one of the other critically injured students who is also at a cleveland hospital tonight. that family member tells us that that student is out of surgery. he was shot in the stomach and there was some fear that he would be paralyzed, but according to this family member just recently, he's doing very well and hope he'll make a full recovery. >> we hope as well he makes a full recovery. live at the scene of this horrible tragedy. thanks so much. we'll get back to you. martin savidge has a personal connection to this story. he spoke with cnn by phone about an hour ago. >> everybody in the community and certainly the high school has just been shocked and horrified by the day's events, and talking with students here, you can see how deeply shaken. it began, of course, early this morning during the morning announcements, about 7:30 when the principal gets on the loud speaker system in the school and announced that they were in lock down. the students initially said we've had these drills all the time, but they could tell by the emotion in his voice that this was not a drill. a lot of the kids can't even bring themselves to talk about it. we've reached out to a number of families, especially families whose children were either in the cafeteria where the shooting took place or who were in the hallways, and they just are so emotionally distraught. initially, when they got out of the classroom, got out of school, they felt fine, but now the news has begun to sink in. that particular teacher, which is so often cited, the students know him as mr. hall. it's actually frank hall, he is a football coach, and big guy, and the kids say they are not surprised in any way, shape, or form that mr. hall would have been the one that chased the gunman out of the school and probably prevented any further disaster from happening here. now, i'm also hearing there are other teachers who did other heroic events. some of them quite remarkable. outside the line of the classroom going to rescue wounded children, bring them to their classroom, and to care for them and protect them. >> this subject has two sons at chardon high school. linda joins me on the phone now. linda, take me through your terrifying, horrifying moment. how did you find out there was a shooting at the school where your two sons were? >> well, one of my sons had contacted me from the parking lot of the school across the street, the maple elementary school, because he was in the hallway outside of the cafeteria, i believe, they were preparing to go to their health class, and he did not -- i don't believe he saw the shooting, but he heard the pops of the gun, and thought at first it was a cap gun or something, and i think then he just reacted to that, along with any of the few other students there, and they just started running, and they ran across the street. the parking lot where they gathered and were just trying to come to grips with what they just went through. they weren't really quite sure. i think the phones were out, they were texting. he called me, took a couple of times to reach me, called his dad, and from that, we just gathered that we needed to get there, waited for more information, tried to reach my other son, who happened to be on the other side of the cafeteria in the locker room for gym class, and i eventually reached him, and he had no idea what was happening, because he was in the locker room, didn't hear the shot, but i believe that the teacher must have kept them in there. >> do either of your sons know the alleged gunman? >> no. i believe they just know who they are, the shooter or the victims. they aren't acquainted with any of them. >> no conversations in recent days about trouble at the school or threats at the school or any behavior, if you read this young man -- the alleged suspect, if you read his facebook page, disturbing writings. any concerns at all before this horrible event this morning? >> no, not that they were aware of, not that we were aware of. i think that everything was pretty normal and pretty routine. >> in terms of the school arranging to get the children out, obviously, i need to worry about the gunman first, had the lock down. how would you grade the school's performance of dealing with this and making sure it got information out and got the students out? >> oh, i think the school did an excellent job. i think the police department -- i think everybody did an excellent job. i felt comfortable being around the community as we gathered waiting for our kids, the schools did an excellent job. took a little bit of time to get the information out to us, but we were kind of getting more information through our kids' communications with cell phones and stuff, but the school did the best they could in the situation, given they reacted admirably, everybody. >> linda, appreciate your help understanding this tragedy tonight. our best to your boys as well. please, take care in the days ahead. more from chardon in a bit. shifting to politics. for mitt romney, the michigan contest is a must-win, the state he grew up. tonight a poll shows it's a dead heat. rick santorum 36%, that is within the poll's margin of error. mitt romney spent today across michigan, hitting santorum with sharper and more personal attacks. >> i'm glad he recognizes, this has got to be a campaign about the economy. it's time for him to really focus on the economy and for you to all say okay, if the economy's going to be the issue we focus on, who has the experience to actually get this economy going again? senator santorum's a nice guy, but he's never had a job in the private sector. >> about an hour ago also in michigan, the former pennsylvania senator threw the criticism right back at romney. santorum says no one, especially governor romney should question his conservative credentials. >> leading ahead of the curve on conservative issues. to be attacked on television as someone who is not an authentic conservative by a massachusetts governor. [ applause ] >> our national political correspondent is on the trail in michigan for us. has to be a tense night for the romney campaign. they know how important michigan is and with the polls showing a dead heat, they've got to be feeling the hit. >> reporter: that's right, john, they don't want to take a trip to al gore country and lose their own state, and that is really where the stakes are now for the romney campaign. romney earlier today was talking about why rick santorum should get back to economic issues. that was a dig at rick santorum, we know he's been put under intense scrutiny on comments on socially conservative issues. i have to tell you, john, behind the scenes, the romney campaign was fielding lots of questions today about some of those comments that mitt romney made in the last 24 to 48 hours, really going back to detroit when he was talking about the romney family's car collection, those two cadillacs his wife drives, then on sunday at the daytona 500 when he said i'm not much of a nascar fan, but i know owners of nascar racing teams. all of that was being asked of romney advisers behind the scenes today. the advisers were pushing back saying this is part of a media narrative, they were dismissing it and saying mitt romney does, indeed, connect with voters out on the campaign trail. john? >> we're going to see how he connects in his one-time home state of michigan. jim acosta on the ground, thank you. also in the news tonight, new explosion and rage of the burning of holy books in afghanistan. there are no nato causalities. the taliban calls the attack a retaliation by last week's koran burning by nato troops. now to syria, reportedly boosting today's death toll to 125 people. more than half at a security checkpoint in homs. the european union fighting the intense bloodshed with sanctions, but the regime insists reform is already in the process, pointing to a new constitution. again, this is the regime speaking, it says it's been overwhelmingly approved. up next, arming syrian rebels. we'll ask if that's a smart idea. and the private e-mails from a major security firm hit the internet thanks to wikileaks. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business, it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $6.4 billion in new credit to small businesses across the country last year. because the more we help them, the more we help make opportunity possible. to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? well, there is. 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[ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. in addition to new bloodshed in syria and afghanistan, today also brought a strong warning targeting iran. vladimir putin predicts the consequences of a military strike against iran would be disastrous. mike rogers is just back from a trip to israel last week. mr. chairman, let's go through some of these hot spots in the region quickly, because there are many. you were in israel, people in the united states, including high up in the obama administration think the prime minister is going to wait until may, and if he does not see iran backing down, he'll launch a preemptive strike, did you get that sense? >> i got the sense israel is incredibly serious about a strike on their nuclear weapons program. they have a very different set of eyes on this problem. one is the fact that they've got problems on their southern border, egypt is growing unpredictab unpredictable, hamas a getting stronger, hezbollah, their argument is if that nuclear umbrella comes over iran, it's dangerous to their very existence, let alone a middle east arms race -- nuclear arms race in the middle east, that they are going to have to do something. if you look at it through their perspective, they have a hard choice to make here. >> did you try to disabuse them of their perspective, the top military commander, chairman of the joint chiefs said about a week ago, it wouldn't be prudent, they need to wait, give sanctions more time. do you think the prime minister of israel would do this, say, in a month or two regardless of what the united states thinks? >> i think that they believe, it's their calculus that the administration, when they say because of those public comments that they should wait and do other things, is not serious about a real military consequence to iran moving forward with its nuclear program, so given that, i think they believe they are going to have to make a decision based on what's good for their national security interests aside from what they think might be good for the united states, so i do think they believe they are going to have to make a decision on their own, given the current posture of the united states administration. and that's where we were hoping to pull this thing together. i think this would be better done with rolled-up sanctions, don't wait until july, crank everything down, continue to put pressure on them, and have a real option of military consequence for iran. they don't believe it, iran, i mean, and neither does israel. we have to change that equation if we're going to have an impact on iran backing down from their nuclear weapon program. >> how and what should the united states do to change the equation in syria? should the united states support arming the opposition? i think you said in the past you're worried there could be some al qaeda influence there. >> we do. we do know, we have credible information al qaeda has been working through some of those rebel groups in syria. you don't want to go in and arm the wrong people. we've been down that road before, and it just didn't work out all that well for us. i'd walk very slowly. i think there are some options, though, john. we can empower the arab league to do more. there are some talk of establishing a safe haven in the country through the arab league to give breathing room so people could understand who the rebels are, could understand a way forward and a way that doesn't jeopardize the stability of the region. i think all of that is possible. the u.s. needs to be much more aggressive, i think, through the arab league. >> mr. chairman, let me bring you home to domestic politics, your state's primary is tomorrow, the state of michigan. mitt romney was raised there, his dad was the former governor. we have a dead heat tonight going into tomorrow's primary in a must-win state for him. you're a romney guy. what's this problem? >> again, this has been a long primary, and it's been republican on republican viciousness since the beginning. the only thing the public gets a chance to hear right now is why one republican doesn't like another republican. never good for us in the long run, but remember, this is a state that lost a million manufacturing jobs over the last decade. it's been absolutely devastating for our state. he has a very strong economic issue, and that's why i think you're seeing the polls turn a bit towards romney. when people show up to vote, john, i think they are going to vote on who they believe can turn the economy around and i think most of them can see mitt romney's plan can do just that. >> we'll track those results tomorrow. chairman, appreciate your time tonight. thank you so much, sir. tomorrow's michigan primary will be the first time we hear from an important group of voters. just ahead, what they think of the republican race. than a cove? two covergirls. get two miracles in one product. new tone rehab 2-in-1 foundation. covers spots, lines... and wrinkles. and helps improve skin tone over time. new tone rehab from easy... breezy... beautiful... covergirl! covergirl! e land. breezy... beautiful... economically, it seems like a good choice now. we need environmental protection. we've got more than 100 years worth of energy, right here. 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