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Grandparents of Ohio school shooter say gun wasn't theirs

Grandparents of Ohio school shooter say gun wasn't theirs

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

FILE - James Austin Hancock, a teen charged in a school cafeteria shooting that took place February 29, 2016, sits next to his attorney Charlie Rittgers Sr. before Judge Ronald Craft in Butler County Juvenile Court in Hamilton, Ohio, on April 28, 2016. Photo: Greg Lynch/Journal-News via AP

HAMILTON: The grandparents of a boy who opened fire in an Ohio school cafeteria and injured several classmates say a lawsuit wrongly names them as the gun's owners. The Hamilton-Middletown Journal-News reports the boy's grandfather denies the allegation after three students and their families sued 15-year-old James Austin Hancock and his family last month. Hancock and his great-grandmother told investigators that the gun was hers. She said she discovered it missing after the shooting. A lawyer who filed the lawsuit says the plaintiffs will refile it if they stand corrected about who owned the weapon. The lawsuit blames relatives for allowing Hancock to obtain the firearm. Hancock's attorney from his criminal case has said that he's confident Hancock's relatives won't be found to have done anything for which they can be held responsible.