School Shooting:Multiple Deaths in Lancaster, PA Amish School, Shooter Kills Self

Fox News Alert ^ | 02 OCT 06

[DCBryan1]

Developing....

School Shooting injures one person,

Hostage situation may be developing.

Update: Multiple Shooting Victims and Possible Hostages in Lancaster County

Not many details available yet, but an incident has been reported from Mine Rd. in Bart Township in Lancaster County involving multiple gunshot victims. Dennis Buterbaugh reports live from our newsroom. abc27 has a news crew on the way. We will update with details as they become available.

Update 2: Pennsylvania Police: Amish School is 'Horrendous Crime Scene' After Shooting

NICKEL MINES, Pa. — At least two female students and one slightly older female — who may have been a teacher's aide — were shot and killed execution style in what police say may be a revenge killing for something that happened 20 years ago.

State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said Monday that truck driver Charles Carl Roberts IV entered the one-room Amish schoolhouse in earlier in the day. The gunman brought in pieces of wood to board up the doors to the building when he entered the school. He also stacked desks against the building's doors.

"It appears that the suspect entered school with the intention of taking hostages," Miller said.

Roberts had wire ties and plastic flex cuff, which he used to begin tying the hostages feet together after they were lined up along a blackboard. He let go 15 male students, as well as one adult female who was pregnant. Three other non-student females with infants were also allowed to leave. One shotgun and one handgun was found next to the suspect when police entered the building.

"It seems as though he wanted to attack young, female victims," Miller said.

After a half hour inside, Roberts began shooting. When the gunfire stopped, three females were found shot dead at the scene, along with the suspect, who shot himself, Miller said. At least seven more victims — some critically wounded — were transported to nearby hospitals, he said. One victim, a young girl, died in the arms of a trooper, Miller said. He could not confirm how many people died en route or at the hospital. The county coroner earlier reported six children killed but then backed off of that statement.

Excerpt

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Sorry, I just read that a person was at Lancaster ER and said one or more dead.
I did not get the name of the poster so I just copied URL and posted it here.

[Quix]

Perhaps a different thread about possible causes and solutions could be set-up?

[Jrabbit]

OMG....praying hard for all the victims of this horrible monster! There sometimes are just no words...

[LA Woman3]

Miller said Roberts also allowed an adult female who was pregnant to leave and three other adult females who had infant children with them.

LINK

[La Enchiladita]

See post #1016.

[Sisku Hanne]

Adult? Think Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. These Amish teachers can be 18 year old girls with a GED who never saw the inside of a public school. They aren't 40 year old women with a 4 year college degree. They certainly are sheltered enough to have no experience with evil such as this.

[LibertyRocks]

I don't think that he is Amish now, but I have no idea if there were past ties to the community. The LEO I saw on ABC stated Charles Carl Roberts IV, was a milk delivery truck driver and dropped his kids off at the bus stop before going to the Amish school...

Here is an updated AP story...

http://ap.lancasteronline.com/4/amish_school_shooting

Milk Man Kills Girls at Pa. Amish School
By Mark Scolforo
Associated Press Writer

Published: Oct 02, 2006 3:19 PM EST

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) - A 32-year-old milk truck driver took about a dozen girls hostage in a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday, barricaded the doors with boards and killed at least three girls and apparently himself, authorities said.

It was the nation's third deadly school shooting in less than a week, and similar to an attack just days earlier at a school in Colorado.

The gunman, identified as Charles Carl Roberts IV, was inside for over half an hour and had barred the doors with 2x4s with the girls inside, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said. By the time officers broke windows to get in, three girls and the gunman were dead, Miller said.

Lancaster County Coroner G. Gary Kirchner initially said six people were killed, but later said he wasn't certain. At least seven people were taken to hospitals, including at least three girls in critical condition with gunshot wounds.

Roberts walked into the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School with a shotgun and handgun, then released about 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three women with infants before barring the doors, Miller said.

The girls were lined up along a blackboard and their feet were bound, he said.

A teacher called police around 10:30 a.m. and reported that a gunman was holding students hostage.

About 11 a.m., Roberts apparently called his wife from a cell phone, saying he was "acting out in revenge for something that happened 20 years ago," Miller said. "It seems as though he wanted to attack young, female victims."

Moments later, Roberts told a dispatcher he would open fire on the children if police didn't back away from the building. Troopers heard gunfire in the building seconds later.

The school has about 25 to 30 students in all, ages 6 to 13.

"It seems as though he wanted to attack young, female victims," Miller said. He released no further details about that what the grudge Roberts mentioned could have involved.

The school is among farmlands just outside Nickel Mines, a tiny village about 55 miles west of Philadelphia. Hours after the shootings, about three dozen people in traditional Amish clothing, hats and bonnets stood near the small building, surrounded by a white board fence, as investigators walked in line through fields searching for evidence.

The shootings were disturbingly similar to an attack last week at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colo., where a man took several girls hostage in a school classroom and then killed one of them and himself. Authorities said the man in Colorado sexually molested the girls.

"If this is some kind of a copycat, it's horrible and of concern to everybody, all law enforcement," said Monte Gore, undersheriff of Park County, Colo.

"On behalf of Park County and our citizens and our sheriff's office, our hearts go out to that school and the community," he said.

[trisham]

This was a one-room schoolhouse.

[SE Mom]

No problem :) I'll find it..

What a nightmare this is..

[Mr. Noodle]

I read somewhere that the shooter had a beef with the amish.

How can someone have a beef with the amish?

[bwteim]

Oops, thanks.

[Guenevere]

I know you've been asked to leave....tensions are high....

..but even if I get flamed, I wondered the same thing....

..We hear pregnant moms were allowed to leave...moms with babies were allowed to leave...

...We don't know what truly happened....and we only have hingsight and even the memory of the mad gunman in Scotland who shot up a kindergarten class....

..and were left with the memory of the kindergarten teacher dying trying to protect the little ones in her care by covering some with her own body.

I haven't read all the posts, but I think Txbubba is haunted by the thought of little ones watching moms and teacher leave before they are gunned down......

..it's horrifying.

We don't even know if one of the moms had to leave her own daughter.

Speculation is only making it worse for us here.

[kjam22]

Adult? Think Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. These Amish teachers can be 18 year old girls with a GED who never saw the inside of a public school. They aren't 40 year old women with a 4 year college degree. They certainly are sheltered enough to have no experience with evil such as this.

And that is the issue. My wife retired just last August after teaching 27 years. There's no way she would have left the room without the kids. (that's part of why I'm glad she's retired).

These teachers were most likely young... and I didn't always make good decisions when I was young either.

[bonfire]

One of the news stations had an Amish man on the air and his phone was also out in his shop. It IS bizarre that the ones that DON'T have phones will go to the neighbors and use theirs! They don't drive cars either, but will ride in them.

[Rte66]

The zip code for Nickel Mines, PA is 17562. That should help.

[Tulsa Ramjet]

Its from the movie The Village. Amish types got tired of violence of the world and raised their children in a reservation-type land. But violence followed them anyway.

[Current Occupant]

be trained in advance on how best to protect themselves.

Exactly right. A crisis awareness primer would be helpful..

[bonfire]

"I haven't read all the posts, but I think Txbubba is haunted by the thought of little ones watching moms and teacher leave before they are gunned down......"

I think you just said it perfectly. "haunted"...yes.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Sometimes updates on a long thread get lost in the chaff of who is to blame.

[Quix]

Thanks.

MAY

God have mercy on the families.

God be thickly with the families.

May God hold the children on His lap very snugly and warmly.