CHARDON, Ohio

A student wounded in an Ohio school shooting has been declared brain dead, authorities said today, the second reported fatality in an attack that began when a teenager opened fire in the cafeteria at a suburban Cleveland high school a day earlier.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office received word about Russell King Jr. just before 1 a.m. today, office administrator Hugh Shannon said in a statement. It was unclear whether King remained on life support; the statement referred to him as both deceased and brain dead.

“The cause and manner of death of this case are under on-going investigation and will be released upon completion,” Shannon said in a statement. A spokeswoman at Metro- Health System said this morning that no information on his condition was available.

King, 17, was one of five students injured when a suspect identified by a family lawyer as T.J. Lane began shooting at Chardon High School on Monday morning. King was studying alternative energy at nearby Auburn Career Center and like the others who were shot was waiting for a bus for his daily 15- minute ride to the center. Student Daniel Parmertor died hours after the shooting.

A student who saw the attack up close said it appeared that the gunman targeted a group of students sitting together and that the one who was killed was gunned down while trying to duck under the cafeteria table.

Lane’s family is mourning “this terrible loss for their community,” attorney Robert Farnacci said in a statement.

FBI officials would not comment on a motive. And Police Chief Tim McKenna said authorities “ have a lot of homework to do yet” in their investigation of the shooting, which sent students screaming through the halls at the start of the school day at 1,100-student Chardon High.

An education official said the suspected shooter is a Lake Academy student, not a student at Chardon High. Brian Bontempo declined to answer any questions about the student. Bontempo is the superintendent of the Lake County Educational Service Center, which operates the academy.

The alternative school in Willoughby serves 7th through 12th grades. Students may have been referred to the school because of academic or behavioral problems.

The FBI said the suspect was arrested near his car a half-mile from Chardon. He was not immediately charged.

Teachers locked down their classrooms as they had been trained to do during drills, and students took cover as they waited for the all-clear in this town of 5,100 people, 30 miles from Cleveland. One teacher was said to have dragged a wounded student into his classroom to protect him. Another chased the gunman out of the building, police said.

Fifteen- year- old Danny Komertz, who witnessed the shooting, said Lane was known as an outcast who had apparently been bullied. But others disputed that.

“Even though he was quiet, he still had friends,” said Tyler Lillash, 16. “He was not bullied.”

Farinacci, representing Lane and his family, told WKYC-TV that Lane “pretty much sticks to himself but does have some friends and has never been in trouble over anything that we know about.”

Long before official word came of the attack, parents learned of the bloodshed from students via text message and cellphone and thronged the streets around the school, anxiously awaiting word on their children.

¦ THE CUYAHOGA COUNTY Medical Examiner’s Office received word about Russell King Jr. just before 1 a.m. today. It was unclear whether King remained on life support; a statement referred to him as both deceased and brain dead.