Three children dead in Amish school shooting

 

Last updated at 20:05pm on 2nd October 2006

The scene at the school in Pennsylvania

 

A gunman opened fire at an Amish school in rural Pennsylvania on Monday, shooting and killing three girls and wounding seven others before killing himself, police said.

The shooting took place at a one-room schoolhouse in rural Lancaster County, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.

Three girls were confirmed dead and seven people were injured, state police said. He shot the victims "execution style" in the head, police said.

The gunman arrived at the school in the late morning and took hostages, Cmdr. Jeffrey Miller of the Pennsylvania state police told a news conference at the scene in Bart Township.

He began shooting an automatic handgun, and police then charged the schoolhouse, Miller said. The gunman had tied up the girls, while letting the boys and some others leave, Miller added.

He said the three dead girls appeared to have been two students and a teacher's aide -- an older girl. The school teaches students aged about 6 to 13.

"It's a horrendous crime scene," Miller said. The gunman was identified as truck driver Charles Carl Roberts, 32, a local resident.

Miller said the motive was still being determined, but "apparently he did make a statement to his wife that he was acting out of revenge... for something that occurred 20 years ago." The incident was the third school shooting in a week in the United States.

The Pennsylvania shooting occurred in a normally placid, rural community where Amish farmers live simply, shunning modern machines and vehicles including cars, travel by horse and buggy and cultivate their land using old-fashioned traditions.

Tourists visit the area to buy antiques and old-fashioned quilts. The shooting was a shock to a community that one resident called almost crime-free.

Aaron Meyer, owner of a local buggy company, told CNN: "In this township of about 30,000 people, we have no police. Because there's just virtually no crime. Many of these townships here have no police at all."

A witness told the Lancaster New Era newspaper that the gunman pulled up in a pickup truck outside the Georgetown School and ran into the schoolroom where several children were doing their lessons.

The teacher and some visitors fled and ran to a nearby farm for help, while the gunman ordered all the boys out of the school.

He then began to fire his gun, while state police troopers shouted, "Roy! Put the gun down! Put the gun down, Roy!" the witness told local reporters. The troopers then fired at the gunman, the witness said.

The Pennsylvania shooting followed reports earlier on Monday of lockdowns at two Las Vegas area schools as police searched for an armed youth, local television reported.

Last Friday a 15-year-old student killed his school's principal in western Wisconsin, and last Wednesday a drifter took six female high school students hostage in Colorado, molested them and then shot one to death and killed himself as police closed in.

I can't believe it. Why? What is wrong with people?

oh bloody hell, this is just become ridiculous :thinking: and of all places... not to say it would never happen, but probably one of the most unlikely of places...

those people need councelling, not handguns.

Some people are really, really screwed up in the head. :sick:

Who would want to kill little Amish girls? D=

 

I mean, they're Amish! Amish people are some of the nicest people alive! And they make good cookies.......

 

But, anybody who would shoot anyone for something that happened 20 years ago is crazy.

Especially Amish people.

 

At least he's dead now.

Who would want to kill little Amish girls? D=

 

I mean, they're Amish! Amish people are some of the nicest people alive! And they make good cookies.......

 

But, anybody who would shoot anyone for something that happened 20 years ago is crazy.

Especially Amish people.

 

At least he's dead now.

 

Maybe, but with guns so easy to get hold of in the US, the next attack is probably just round the corner................................. ;)

Fourth Amish girl dies after US shooting

 

 

Tuesday Oct 3 20:07 AEST

AP - Four girls have died after a man with a grudge attacked an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania, before killing himself.

Charles Carl Roberts IV finished his milk deliveries a couple of hours before dawn, took a nap, and then dropped his three children off at a bus stop.

Then, reportedly prompted by a grudge two decades old, he wrote what authorities described as suicide notes, grabbed guns and ammunition and went to a nearby one-room Amish schoolhouse, killed at least three girls and critically injured seven more before taking his own life, authorities said.

A fourth girl, aged seven, died about 4.30am (1830 AEST) at Penn State Children's Hospital in Hershey, hospital spokeswoman Amy Buehler Stranges said.

"Her parents were with her," Buehler Stranges said. "She was taken off life support and she passed away shortly after."

The attack, the third deadly school slaying in the United States in less than a week, occurred in a bucolic stretch of Lancaster County where horse-drawn buggies carry plainly dressed Amish along twisting backcountry roads - and where violent crime is virtually nonexistent.

 

Roberts, a 32-year-old from nearby Bart Township who was not Amish, did not appear to be targeting the Amish and 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," said state police Commissioner Jeffrey B Miller.

 

The names and ages of the dead were not immediately released.

Two young students at the West Nickel Mines Amish School were killed, along with a female teacher's aide who was believed to be about 15 or 16, Commissioner Miller said. Seven others were taken to hospitals, most shot at point-blank range, authorities said.

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

 

The attack bore similarities to a deadly school shooting last week in Colorado, 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.

According to investigators, Roberts dropped his children off at their bus stop, then at about 10 am (local time) pulled up at the school, which had about 25 to 30 students ranging in age from six to 13.

Roberts brought with him supplies necessary 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.

He released about 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three women with infants, barred the doors with desks and wood and secured them with nails, bolts and flexible plastic ties. He then made the girls line up along a blackboard and tied their feet together.

The teacher and another adult fled to a nearby farmhouse and called authorities.

Miller said Roberts apparently called his wife from a mobile phone at around 11 am, saying he was taking revenge for an old grudge. Miller declined to say what the grudge could have been.

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

Moments later, Roberts told a dispatcher he would open fire on the children if police didn't back away from the building. Within seconds, troopers heard gunfire, and found his body when they were able to get inside.

From the suicide notes and telephone calls, it was clear Roberts was "angry at life, he was angry at God," and co-workers said his mood had darkened in recent days, Miller said.

In a statement released to reporters, the gunman's wife, Marie Roberts, 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."

One girl remained in critical condition at the Penn State Children's Hospital, while a 13-year-old girl was upgraded to serious condition.

Three girls, ages 8, 10 and 12, were flown to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where they were in critical condition on Monday night. The sixth injured victim was in Christiana Hospital in Delaware, where officials declined to release information.

In the attack last week at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, a man singled out several girls as hostages in a school classroom and then killed one of them and himself. Authorities said the man in Colorado sexually molested the girls.

On Friday, a school principal was shot to death in Cazenovia, Wisconsin. A 15-year-old student, described as upset over a reprimand, was charged with murder.

Neighbours who knew the Roberts family said they saw no indications of trouble brewing.

"They're a fine Christian family. It's ironic and it's heartbreaking," said Lois Fiester, a relative of Roberts who was standing outside the family's modest ranch house.

 

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=149162

What is with the stingy gun laws in the U.S anyway?! It's ridiculous.

oh honestly, this is too much. it's bloody ridiculous, and his reasons for doing it are insane, make no sense. guns do nothing but cause devastation and destruction. completely unnecessary imo.

oh honestly' date=' this is too much. it's bloody ridiculous, and his reasons for doing it are insane, make no sense. guns do nothing but cause devastation and destruction. completely unnecessary imo.[/quote']

 

Exactly. Of course, if somebody is really intent on getting a gun and shooting people, they will, whether guns are banned or not, but at least if they' are banned they're not easy to get hold of.

That's why you get far fewer incidents like this in countries where guns are banned.

There have only been one of two incidents like this in the UK throughout history,

and one of the most infamous of these involved a guy who was a member of a gun club and I think had been in the army.

Have there been any in Aus?:thinking:

Have there been any in Aus?:thinking:

 

no, australia has never experienced a school shooting, not that i can ever recall. we've been really lucky that way. sadly other countries, primarily the US, aren't as fortunate. i'd maybe sugguest reconsidering their gun laws.

no' date=' australia has never experienced a school shooting, not that i can ever recall. we've been really lucky that way. sadly other countries, primarily the US, aren't as fortunate. i'd maybe sugguest reconsidering their gun laws.[/quote']

 

I agree. It can't just be just coincidence.

Australia did have the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, where 35 people were shot dead...after that new gun laws were brought in, there was a huge haul where guns had to be destroyed and that I recall

 

 

not sure if Australia has ever had a "school" massacre though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunblane_Massacre

 

This is the only "school" one I can recall in the UK.

A curious fact is that the tennis player Andy Murray was a pupil at the school at the time, and was among the lucky ones.:thinking:

The difference between this and the US incidents is that the killer wasn't a pupil/teenager, though.

Australia did have the Port Arthur massacre in 1996' date=' where 35 people were shot dead...after that new gun laws were brought in, there was a huge haul where guns had to be destroyed and that I recall[/quote']

 

I was thinking more about school incidents, although there do seem to be far more non-warfare/terrorism "massacres" of any type in the US compared to other countries in the western world.

 

Guns are banned in Australia, though, aren't they?

Reminds me of something on 'American Dad'

 

*Puts gun on table* "Go on, kill me, go on, go on! See, guns don't kill people, people kill people."

^You're completely missing the point.

firearms ownership in australia is extremely restrictive. there are strong anti-gun laws that prevent anyone who doesn't absolutely need a gun to ever own one. you can't have a gun for the sake of owning a gun, and you can't have one for defensive reasons. since the 90s, the laws have gotten stricter. there is just law after law that make owning a gun in australia incredibly difficult, and i'm glad for that.

unbelievable that their government hasn't learned from the previous incidents...

 

the black market should be more controlled imo, because i guess mostly this way is how the teenagers or even simple citizens get guns or othe weapons. also, the law of "weapon ownership" should be more restrictive as StarsKay mentioned above me.

 

on other hand, the brutality of some American TV shows and PC games might lead to this violence, too. a lot of shows and PC games should be banned (!!!) because of unacceptable behaviour which influences the growing up generation...

but since it's US, country of freedom, it's probably not even worth to bring up this issue...

unbelievable that their government hasn't learned from the previous incidents...

 

the black market should be more controlled imo, because i guess mostly this way is how the teenagers or even simple citizens get guns or othe weapons. also, the law of "weapon ownership" should be more restrictive as StarsKay mentioned above me.

 

on other hand, the brutality of some American TV shows and PC games might lead to this violence, too. many, many shows and PC games should be banned (!!!).

but since it's US, country of freedom, it's probably not even worth to bring up...

 

I totally agree. I think in this case, America is its own worst enemy.

five dead now

Maybe' date=' but with guns so easy to get hold of in the US, the next attack is probably just round the corner................................. ;)[/quote']

 

Again its a culture issue, he could have walked in with a sword and done this. Dont blame a tool for a man's evilness.

no' date=' australia has never experienced a school shooting, not that i can ever recall. we've been really lucky that way. sadly other countries, primarily the US, aren't as fortunate. i'd maybe sugguest reconsidering their gun laws.[/quote']

 

And do what? take away guns from people who protect themselve while letting criminals have and use guns? Guns laws are shit, they help no one but criminals. It would make a bad problem worse.

 

Gun laws are not the answer because criminals do not follow them, if a man's willing to kill 5 innocent girls he not going to mind breaking a law and illegally getting a gun, and getting an illegal gun is very easy, so outlawing them or a tighter ban would just keep non violent people unprotected while letting criminals bypass the law and buy them illegally. Not to mention city's with very low crime rates require people to own guns.

unbelievable that their government hasn't learned from the previous incidents...

 

the black market should be more controlled imo, because i guess mostly this way is how the teenagers or even simple citizens get guns or othe weapons. also, the law of "weapon ownership" should be more restrictive as StarsKay mentioned above me.

 

on other hand, the brutality of some American TV shows and PC games might lead to this violence, too. a lot of shows and PC games should be banned (!!!) because of unacceptable behaviour which influences the growing up generation...

but since it's US, country of freedom, it's probably not even worth to bring up this issue...

 

We cant restrict the black market, its like drugs, we can nap suppliers and smugglers all day long without putting a dent into the problem. Guns can easily be smuggled into America. No videogames or show's lead to violence, if that was true we'd have tens of millions of people killing. Its a mental disease that leads to this. Lets not blame the things not involved with the problem, one thing i hate is blaming someone or something else for a problem. Its the persons fault, he's the problem, not a victim of video games or TV. It was a suicidal guy mad at god for his failure at life.

 

Banning them why? what happened to freedom? We shouldnt loosen our goverements control on tv and video games, its up to the parents to parent not the government.

 

Lets blame the real thing here, mental illness, not video games not TV. Games dont cause violence, a mental or social problem does.

 

And this problem will only grow as millions of illegals come in and more and more violent criminals come in to a already high murder rate in America. Lets go after the people who are to blame for this bullshit not TV or video games. Because America had a bad problem with murder before video games were around.

Reminds me of something on 'American Dad'

 

*Puts gun on table* "Go on, kill me, go on, go on! See, guns don't kill people, people kill people."

 

Its true, guns dont kill, people do.