Amish Shooting
BREAKING NEWS
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 24 minutes ago
NICKEL MINES, Pa. - At least six people were killed Monday in a shooting at a one-room Amish school, the county coroner said. The identities and ages of the victims were not immediately available.

"So far six confirmed dead and the helicopters are pulling into (Lancaster General Hospital) like crazy," Lancaster County Coroner G. Gary Kirchner said.

The shooter was among the dead, state police Cpl. Ralph Striebig said. “There are also a number of wounded,” he added.

Three girls, all critical with gunshot wounds and ages 6 through 12, were admitted to Lancaster General Hospital, spokesman John Lines told NBC affiliate WGAL-TV.

WGAL-TV also reported that the shooter was an adult male who had entered the school in rural Lancaster County and started making threats.

Some people in the Amish community learned about the situation and contacted police, WGAL reported. Negotiations apparently then took place but at some point at least 10 shots were fired within the school, WGAL said. It appeared the shooter took his own life.

Two hours later, about three dozen people in traditional Amish clothing, hats and bonnets stood near the small school building speaking to one another, several young people and authorities.

At least two ambulances had left the scene, and at least one person was taken on a stretcher to a medical helicopter.

Twenty-seven students are said to have attended the private school, which teaches first through eighth grades.

The school is situated among farmlands just outside Nickel Mines, a tiny village about 55 miles west of Philadelphia
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What a sad sad world we live in

It seems like our schools have become the new McDonalds or Postal Stations of the 90's/ past.

Remember when it seemed like ever nutjob in the world would go there to and shoot up the place just to get even with the world, which had wrong them.

How awful! You're right, FS, it does seem that way. In some ways, though, this shooting takes on a deeper level of horror (if that's possible) because of the introduction of violence into such a non-violent community.

This is just a half hour away from me, and is devastating the Amish community in Lancaster. I don't recall anything remotely tragic ever happening there. It's so senseless.

What is going on??? I read too that two school in Las Vegas are in lockdown because someone was spotted with a gun. Anyone hear details on this? I'm certainly not comfortable with these lunatics targeting schools.


TIS

Talk about terror in the schools from 2 extremes. From a Pennsylvania Dutch country one room schoolhouse to the schools of Las Vegas. It seems noone is safe.

2 weeks ago some sicko called the Police Department here ans said that at 2am on the 22nd. one of the schools here was going to be bombed. Thank God that nothing happened and that day they were off for a teacher work day.

What has this world come to when we have to be scared to death to send our children to school to get a education??

I really hate the fact that we as the american public are so engrossed when we hear about these stories on our computer/cable news television.

Peeps never knew when a college graduated (home schooled) self entrepreneur shot up a german class at some amish school back in the 80's. right??? im only 27 so i was a child when the computer first started taking off but am i wrong?

p.s-- maybe i am confused/concerned b/c of the difference between a 'country life' in good ol' texas and some of the applers who happen to be part of 'this thing of OURS.'

So sad. I feel so bad for the familys.

DS

...Harvey Dent reference...

...Harvey Dent reference... [/b][/quote]

What is going on in our country? Everyone looking for their 15 minutes of fame and then see how many people they can take with them? This is, what, the 3rd or 4th school shooting in 2 weeks? People are sick, sick, sick!!! The ones who really suffer are the ones who are left behind. They always wonder why. I read on our local news web site that the wife of the shooter issued a statement, and she apologized for his actions. She and her children will be pariahs forever. I feel bad for them, as well as the victims' families.

A local radio station this morning was trying to organize a fund raiser for the families of the victims. An Amish representative for the grieving families advised that needs are being met, and asked that we consider raising money for the children of the man who committed these heinous murders.

A man who laid siege to a one-room Amish schoolhouse told his wife he had molested young children decades ago and left a note saying he had "dreams of molesting again," state police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said Tuesday.

Police said they could not confirm the claim by Charles Carl Roberts IV and that family members knew nothing of the alleged molestation.

Earlier Tuesday, two more children died of wounds from the shootings, raising the death toll to five girls plus the gunman.

Five other girls remained hospitalized, four in critical condition, though state police spokeswoman Linette Quin said the survivors were "coming along very well."

The two girls who died, ages 7 and 9, had "very severe injuries," she said.

The attack on the tiny, one-room schoolhouse amid the farm fields of Lancaster County was the nation's third deadly school shooting in less than a week, and it led the Bush administration to call for a school violence summit within days to discuss possible federal action to help communities prevent violence and deal with its aftermath.

Authorities said Charles Carl Roberts IV, a milk truck driver and father of three who lived in the area, wrote what appeared to be suicide notes before taking guns and an estimated 600 rounds of ammunition to the tiny school.

Roberts did not appear to be targeting the Amish, though, state police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said Tuesday. He said Roberts apparently chose the school because he was bent on killing young girls as a way of "acting out in revenge for something that happened 20 years ago."

From the notes Roberts left behind and the telephone calls he made, it was clear he was "angry at life, he was angry at God," Miller said. Co-workers said his mood had darkened in recent weeks, but suddenly brightened over the weekend, Miller said.

"A few days before the shooting a weight was lifted," Miller said Tuesday.

When Roberts drove to the school, he had clearly prepared, Miller said. Police said Roberts had supplies for a lengthy siege, including three guns, a stun gun, two knives, a pile of wood and a bag with 600 rounds of ammunition, police said. He also had a change of clothing, toilet paper, bolts and hardware, and rolls of clear tape, and he backed a truck up to the schoolhouse.

"We know in speaking to the teacher that he walked in, he had a gun in his hand and he began to speak to the students: 'Have you ever seen this?'" Miller told ABC's "Good Morning America" Tuesday morning.

"Obviously the teacher was very concerned right away," Miller said. "He wasn't agitated, but he was very serious about what he was doing, and methodical in how he separated students, allowed certain people to leave, and then began to bind the female students he had at the blackboard.

"They weren't able to get away. They were basically standing, bound to each other, their legs were bound together. They couldn't run away from that location."

Roberts released about 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three women with infants, then barred the doors with desks and wood and secured them with nails, bolts and flexible plastic ties, police said.

The teacher and another adult fled to a nearby farmhouse, and authorities were called at about 10:30 a.m. Miller said Roberts apparently called his wife from a cell phone at around 11 a.m., saying he was taking revenge for an old grudge.

Shortly after police arrived, they heard gunshots. The girls had been shot execution style, and the gunman was dead, Miller said.

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

He said Roberts had lost a daughter in recent years, and that that also may have been a factor.

"This is a horrendous, horrific incident for the Amish community," Miller said. "They're solid citizens in the community. They're good people. They don't deserve ... no one deserves this."

The names of the children were not immediately released.

Of the injured, a 6-year-old girl remained in critical condition and a 13-year-old girl was in serious condition at Penn State Children's Hospital, spokeswoman Buehler Stranges said. Three other girls, ages 8, 10 and 12, were flown to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where they were out of surgery but in critical condition, spokeswoman Peggy Flynn said.

The Amish traditions of simple living, including the lack of phones in the school, complicated the situation for police responding to the attack and for the families.

Many of the parents refused to fly in planes and had to be driven to see their children at hospitals, which made identifications difficult, Miller said. He said some families were taken to the wrong hospitals amid the confusion.

In a statement released to reporters, Roberts' wife, Marie, called her husband "loving, supportive and thoughtful."

"He was an exceptional father," she said. "He took the kids to soccer practice and games, played ball in the backyard and took our 7-year-old daughter shopping. He never said no when I asked him to change a diaper."

"Our hearts are broken, our lives are shattered, and we grieve for the innocence and lives that were lost today," she said. "Above all, please pray for the families who lost children and please pray too for our family and children."

The attack bore similarities to a deadly school shooting last week in Bailey, Colo., but Miller said he believed the Pennsylvania attack was not a copycat crime. "I really believe this was about this individual and what was going on inside his head," he said.

The sense of community of the Amish never ceases to amaze me. Here it is, their children were murdered, and all they think of is the family of the man who killed their kids.