Three Pupils Killed, 7 Hurt in Pennsylvania Attack (Update3)


Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Three pupils were killed and 7 others were wounded by a gunman at a one-room Amish school in rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, state police said.

The 32-year-old gunman, a truck driver who lived in the area, then killed himself, Commander Jeffrey Miller said in a televised press conference. The killer, Charles Roberts, left a suicide note at his home for his wife and children, Miller said.

Roberts separated the boys and girls at the school, and released the boys and their teacher, Miller said. The dead were all girls. Seven students were wounded.

Four students were taken to Lancaster General Hospital, where three were in critical condition, spokesman John Lines said. The condition of the fourth wasn't immediately determined.

The critically injured children were flown to pediatric hospitals in Philadelphia and Hershey, Pennsylvania, Lines said.

The Amish school is in Bart Township, a community of about 3,000 people about 17 miles (27 kilometers) southeast of Lancaster, in southeastern Pennsylvania.

The Amish are a Christian religious sect that stress separation from the modern world. Many drive horses and buggies rather than cars and do not have electricity in their homes.

Amish children attend schools until eighth grade, according to the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau's Web page.

There are about 25,000 Amish in Lancaster County, the bureau said, citing Raber's 2004 Almanac.

Bloomberg

How terribly terribly sad that this type of thing should happen, and continues to happen, in schools. What on earth prompts these maniacs to commit murder involving young children? :x

NICKEL MINES, Pa. - 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.

Yahoo News

A fourth girl has since died from this tragic event.