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Escaped school shooter had pitchfork, patrol says

This combination of undated photos made available by the Lima Police Department shows, Thomas Michael Lane III, aka T.J. Lane, 19, left, and Clifford E. Opperud, 45. Lane, convicted of killing three students at an Ohio high school, scrambled over a fence to escape a state prison with Opperud and another prisoner, and was captured nearly six hours later hiding by a church early Friday, Sept. 12, 2014, authorities said. (AP Photo/Lima Police)
This combination of undated photos made available by the Lima Police Department shows, Thomas Michael Lane III, aka T.J. Lane, 19, left, and Clifford E. Opperud, 45. Lane, convicted of killing three students at an Ohio high school, scrambled over a fence to escape a state prison with Opperud and another prisoner, and was captured nearly six hours later hiding by a church early Friday, Sept. 12, 2014, authorities said. (AP Photo/Lima Police) This combination of undated photos made available by the Lima Police Department shows, Thomas Michael Lane III, aka T.J. Lane, 19, left, and Clifford E. Opperud, 45. Lane, convicted of killing three students at an Ohio high school, scrambled over a fence to escape a state prison with Opperud and another prisoner, and was captured nearly six hours later hiding by a church early Friday, Sept. 12, 2014, authorities said. (AP Photo/Lima Police)

By Associated Press 3 min read

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The school shooter who briefly escaped from an Ohio prison last week had a pitchfork when he was captured, the state patrol said Monday as newly released records added to the picture of an inmate frequently in trouble behind bars.

T.J. Lane, convicted of killing three students at Chardon High School in the Cleveland area in 2012, did not threaten officers with the pitchfork, and it isn’t known where he got it from, said patrol Lt. Craig Cvetan.

New discipline records released Monday by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction show that Lane argued with instructors in education courses at Allen Correctional Institution, was found with marijuana in his system, gave himself three tattoos in violation of prison rules and worked out in a weight room despite a direct order not to.

“Another day of Mr. Lane refusing to do anything in education,” an official said in a conduct report on Aug. 22, 2013.

Almost two months later, on Oct. 10, Lane was cited for telling an instructor he didn’t need to take his class. In November, he admitted to smoking marijuana and taking the anticonvulsant drug Dilantin, which he hadn’t been prescribed, according to state records. They didn’t say why he took the drug.