10-03-2006, 01:01 AM
Itââ¬â¢s sounds like the world is getting crazier lately will all these school killings going on. Now itââ¬â¢s come to the Amish community.
By Keith Herbert
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Ed Hille, Inquirer
A group of Amish men wait at a roadblock near the West Nickle Mines school in Bart Twp., Pa., where an armed man held students hostage and later killed a number of them and himself.
A 32-year-old man stormed a one-room Amish school in rural Lancaster County this morning, bound female students, shot three dead execution-style, and wounded seven others before turning the gun on himself, state police said.
Charles Carl Roberts IV, of Bart Township, had left suicide notes at his home before barricading himself in the Nickel Mines School, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said.
"He intended not to walk out alive and to kill innocent victims," Miller said.
An unspecified incident that may have occurred 20 years ago sparked the violence, Miller said.
State police received a call at 10:36 a.m. from a teacher who had escaped from the school - on White Oak Road in Bart Township, about 15 miles southeast of Lancaster - saying that a man had entered the building carrying weapons.
There is no phone inside the schoolhouse, and police did not have any way to contact the armed man. As police began to prepare for an assault, Roberts called the 911 center in Lancaster and said if the police didn't leave, he would begin shooting people in 10 seconds.
He had allowed all the male students to leave the school, and had 10 to 12 female hostages, aged 6 to 13.
While the county dispatcher was informing police of Roberts' call, the officers outside the school began hearing a "rapid succession gunfire," Miller said.
State police then charged into the school, breaking windows to enter because Roberts had used 2-by-4 and 2-by-6 planks to block the doors.
Police found the bodies of Roberts and the victims. One of the girls died in the arms of a state trooper.
"It was a horrific crime scene," Miller said. "It seems as though he wanted to attack young female victims."
Four shooting victims were taken to nearby Lancaster General Hospital at about 11 a.m. One was dead on arrival, and the others were in critical condition, said John P. Lines, a hospital spokesman. Two had gunshot wounds to the head and the other to the upper body.
Lines said a doctor who handled the cases said the wounds indicated they were from close range and intentional.
"This was not a wild shoot," Lines said.
After they were stabilized, they were transferred to other hospitals.
Matt Wain, administrator of Penn State's Children's Hospital, which is part of the Hershey Medical Center, said three children, ages 13, 8 and 6, were admitted there in critical condition with gunshot wounds. All were shot once, he said.
The 13-year-old was in surgery at 4:30 p.m. The other two girls had undergone surgery and were in the pediatric intensive care unit in critical condition.
"It would be unfair at this point to predict any outcome," Wain said. "But let me stress that they are all very seriously ill and we're doing the best we can under the circumstances."
Three children were also taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The first, an 8-year-old girl, arrived about 1:30 p.m. with neck and arm gunshot wounds. She had been transported from the scene of the shooting.
At about 2 p.m., a 12-year-old girl with arm and leg gunshot wounds arrived from Lancaster General Hospital. And at 2:40 p.m., a 10-year-old girl arrived from Reading Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound to the head.
A hospital representative said they were being evaluated and did not know their conditions.
Late this afternoon, Dwight Lefever, a family friend, read a brief statement on behalf of the Roberts' wife, Marie:
"The man who did this today is not the Charlie that I've been married to for almost 10 years. My husband is loving, supportive, thoughtful, all the things you'd always want and more. He was an exceptional father. He took the kids to soccer practice. He played ball in the backyard. And took our 7-year-old daughter shopping. He never said no when I'd ask 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.
"Above all, please pray, especially for the families who lost children, and please pray, too, for our family and children."
Police said Roberts worked the night shift as a milk tanker-truck delivery driver for Northwest Food.
Miller said Roberts' wife told him the last thing he did this morning was take his own three children to their school bus stop.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/ccti...661916.htm
By Keith Herbert
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Ed Hille, Inquirer
A group of Amish men wait at a roadblock near the West Nickle Mines school in Bart Twp., Pa., where an armed man held students hostage and later killed a number of them and himself.
A 32-year-old man stormed a one-room Amish school in rural Lancaster County this morning, bound female students, shot three dead execution-style, and wounded seven others before turning the gun on himself, state police said.
Charles Carl Roberts IV, of Bart Township, had left suicide notes at his home before barricading himself in the Nickel Mines School, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said.
"He intended not to walk out alive and to kill innocent victims," Miller said.
An unspecified incident that may have occurred 20 years ago sparked the violence, Miller said.
State police received a call at 10:36 a.m. from a teacher who had escaped from the school - on White Oak Road in Bart Township, about 15 miles southeast of Lancaster - saying that a man had entered the building carrying weapons.
There is no phone inside the schoolhouse, and police did not have any way to contact the armed man. As police began to prepare for an assault, Roberts called the 911 center in Lancaster and said if the police didn't leave, he would begin shooting people in 10 seconds.
He had allowed all the male students to leave the school, and had 10 to 12 female hostages, aged 6 to 13.
While the county dispatcher was informing police of Roberts' call, the officers outside the school began hearing a "rapid succession gunfire," Miller said.
State police then charged into the school, breaking windows to enter because Roberts had used 2-by-4 and 2-by-6 planks to block the doors.
Police found the bodies of Roberts and the victims. One of the girls died in the arms of a state trooper.
"It was a horrific crime scene," Miller said. "It seems as though he wanted to attack young female victims."
Four shooting victims were taken to nearby Lancaster General Hospital at about 11 a.m. One was dead on arrival, and the others were in critical condition, said John P. Lines, a hospital spokesman. Two had gunshot wounds to the head and the other to the upper body.
Lines said a doctor who handled the cases said the wounds indicated they were from close range and intentional.
"This was not a wild shoot," Lines said.
After they were stabilized, they were transferred to other hospitals.
Matt Wain, administrator of Penn State's Children's Hospital, which is part of the Hershey Medical Center, said three children, ages 13, 8 and 6, were admitted there in critical condition with gunshot wounds. All were shot once, he said.
The 13-year-old was in surgery at 4:30 p.m. The other two girls had undergone surgery and were in the pediatric intensive care unit in critical condition.
"It would be unfair at this point to predict any outcome," Wain said. "But let me stress that they are all very seriously ill and we're doing the best we can under the circumstances."
Three children were also taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The first, an 8-year-old girl, arrived about 1:30 p.m. with neck and arm gunshot wounds. She had been transported from the scene of the shooting.
At about 2 p.m., a 12-year-old girl with arm and leg gunshot wounds arrived from Lancaster General Hospital. And at 2:40 p.m., a 10-year-old girl arrived from Reading Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound to the head.
A hospital representative said they were being evaluated and did not know their conditions.
Late this afternoon, Dwight Lefever, a family friend, read a brief statement on behalf of the Roberts' wife, Marie:
"The man who did this today is not the Charlie that I've been married to for almost 10 years. My husband is loving, supportive, thoughtful, all the things you'd always want and more. He was an exceptional father. He took the kids to soccer practice. He played ball in the backyard. And took our 7-year-old daughter shopping. He never said no when I'd ask 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.
"Above all, please pray, especially for the families who lost children, and please pray, too, for our family and children."
Police said Roberts worked the night shift as a milk tanker-truck delivery driver for Northwest Food.
Miller said Roberts' wife told him the last thing he did this morning was take his own three children to their school bus stop.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/ccti...661916.htm
