'Revenge' Shooting At Amish School

Four Girls Killed, Six Others Hospitalized; Cops Say Gunman Killed Himself

(CBS/AP)  Miller said Roberts was apparently preparing for a long siege, arming himself with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun and a rifle, along with a bag of about 600 rounds of ammunition, two cans of smokeless powder, two knives and a stun gun on his belt. He also had rolls of tape, various tools and a change of clothes.

Roberts had left several rambling notes to his wife and three children that Miller said were "along the lines of suicide notes." The gunman also called his wife during the siege by cell phone to tell her he was getting even for some long-ago offense, according to Miller.

From the suicide notes and telephone calls, it was clear Roberts was "angry at life, he was angry at God," Miller said. And it was clear from interviews with his co-workers at the dairy that his mood had darkened in recent days and he had stopped chatting and joking around with fellow employees and customers, the officer said.

Miller said that Roberts had been scheduled to take a random drug test on Monday. But the officer said it is not clear what role that may have played in the attack.

Miller said investigators are looking into the possibility the attack may have been related to the death of one of Roberts' own children. According to an obituary, Roberts and his wife, Marie, lost a daughter shortly after she was born in 1997.

As rescue workers and investigators tromped over the surrounding farmland, looking for evidence around this tiny village about 55 miles west of Philadelphia, dozens of people in traditional plain Amish clothing watched - the men in light-colored shirts, dark pants and broad-brimmed straw farmer's hats, the women in bonnets and long dark dresses.

Reporters were kept away from the school after the shooting, and the Amish were reluctant to speak with the media, as is their custom.

The victims were members of the Old Order Amish. Lancaster County is home to some 20,000 Old Order Amish, who eschew automobiles, electricity, computers, fancy clothes and most other modern conveniences, live among their own people, and typically speak a German dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch.

Bob Allen, a clerk at a bookstore in the Amish country tourist town of Intercourse, said residents see the area as being safe and the Amish as peaceful people. "It just goes to show there's no safe place. There's really no such thing," he said.

The shooting took place at the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School, a neat white building set amid green fields, with a square white horse fence around the schoolyard. The school had about 25 to 30 students, ages 6 to 13.

According to investigators, Roberts walked his children to the school bus stop, then backed his truck up to the Amish school, unloaded his weapons and several pieces of lumber, and walked in around 10 a.m. He released about 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three women with babies, Miller said.

He barricaded the doors with two-by-fours and two-by-sixes nailed into place, piled-up desks and flexible plastic ties; made the remaining girls line up along a blackboard; and tied their feet together with wire ties and plastic ties, Miller said.

The teacher and another adult at the school fled to a farmhouse nearby, and someone there called 911 to report a gunman holding students hostage.

Roberts apparently called his wife around 11 a.m., saying he was taking revenge for an old grudge, Miller said. Moments later, Roberts told a dispatcher he would open fire on the children if police did not back away from the building. Within seconds, troopers heard gunfire. They smashed the windows to get inside, and found his body.

Authorities say the three who died were two students and a female teacher's aide who was 15 or 16 years old.

No one answered the door at Roberts' small, one-story home on Tuesday afternoon. Children's toys were strewn on the porch and in the yard.

Miller said he believed the Pennsylvania attack was not a copycat of the similar Colorado crime: "I really believe this was about this individual and what was going on inside his head."

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.

The Pennsylvania attack was the deadliest school shooting since a teenager went on a rampage last year on an Indian reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota, killing 10 people in all, including five students, a teacher, a security guard and himself.

Nationwide, the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado, remains the deadliest school shooting, with 15 dead, including the two teenage gunmen.

In Pennsylvania's insular Amish country, the outer world has intruded on occasion. In 1999, two Amish men were sent to jail for buying cocaine from a motorcycle gang and selling it to young people in their community.

There were four murders in Lancaster County in 2005, including the killings of a non-Amish couple were shot to death in their Lititz home in November by their daughter's 18-year-old boyfriend.

Numbering about 180,000, the Amish, have settlements in 25 states and Ontario with 70 percent of the population in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. They practice a form of Christianity - emphasizing piety, modesty and community - derived from a literal reading of the Bible.

Because of their belief in separating their communities from the outside world, which they consider corrupting, they have strict regulations over societal customs. They tend to dress in simple, mostly dark clothes with little ornamentation, speak in a German dialect, and often shun technological innovation they deem corrosive to their way of life, including electricity, television, automobiles, telephones and tractors.

The Amish run their own schools, but most communities educate their children only through the eighth grade. U.S. courts have exempted the Amish and other groups from requiring further education on the grounds of religious freedom.

[alexis0763]

I'm sickened by the images being shown by the media. The Amish are private people. Many of them hold the belief that if your picture is taken your soul is stolen. Whether we agree with that belief or not, in the midst of their tragedy, we should not be exploiting them like this.

The American media should be deeply ashamed for what they are doing to the Amish people.

[dwmckeown]

Look at all the headlines, what do you expect when even in Washington DC at the capitol your child isn't even safe? We need to change our liberal views and protect all children even the unborn. Some politicians say they protect and defend those that can not protect themselves and then believe in killing the unborn babies at the rights of someone else. Ask your child if they think abortion is okay and then tell them how they should value others in society. Let us value all kids and teach them respect for others and to value every life.

[vegaslife1]

What is this world coming to? I am deeply sadened to see all of these school shooting. These gunmen are very disturbed to pick their victims out for whatever reason and then kill them and then kill themselves. There just isnt any justice when that happens. My heart goes out the those families that have lost their CHILDREN. God bless the rest of the families and their children who are fighting to stay alive.

[rudy654-2009]

To jilli78,

Knock it off! A tragedy has occurred and it's not an opportunity for you to vent your religious bigotry.

[denysbuchana]

This simple is a tragedy that will scar our country for many years to come. For something like this to happen in a community is bad enough, but for it to happen in a place where it's people are not in anyway confrontational and are actual quite nice. I have made a few Amish and Mennonite friends over the years and they would bend over backwards to help me if I needed it. This is a real tradgey and I mourn the lose off such peace and trust.

[wendyhoo-2009]

On another NOTE... WHY are spending so much time on terrorism when we have our own sick people to deal with. Why not while doing a census check or something do a random 5 question test to see if people are fit to live amongst the normal and if not then maybe these people need to go for further testing. We shouldn't have to worry about our children when we send them to school in the morning. Of course we worry but we shouldn't have to worry about some random guy coming off the street and killing our babies. Yeah worry about the bully stealing your kids lunch money etc... it is a sad place right now... and I do agree.... the more the media covers this stuff the more sick people go CLICK that is an idea. I am just sick over the past month of school shootings... in and out of the US. We need to do something!!!

[wendyhoo-2009]

***!!!! Don't blame some female for the action of this man. Even if he was rejected or whatever the case may be doesn't make it right for him to kill 5 young girls. The **** was sick in the FN head!!!! Who even said it was about some broad when they were younger!!!! The paper indicates it may have been due to a death of a child they had 10 years ago. Until the sucide notes actual become public don't judge it as it was because some female dissed him. Not that it is right but why go to an Amish school... he dropped his kids off at thier school a little before going to the Amish school. Not that I think he should have done it at thier school but pick out this one and not stay at the school you were already at. His family is not going to be able to live comfortably there anymore and not that it is thier fault but unfortunately they have to live with what thier mental case father did.

[searingtruth]

My friends,

This heart wrenching tragedy is a tear in the very soul of humanity, and a symptom of a species gone very, very, wrong.

But there could be a much different, a much better, world in our near future.

Some are planning for it.

"One of the greatest tragedies of our existence is that we are a people united by so many common goals, but divided by so many uncommon beliefs.

I believe that our goals are more important. We all want to be free. We all want our children to be healthy and happy. Most all of us want peace so long as our own rights are protected.

These are the ideals that we can all strive for together. These are the threads of humanity that cannot be torn apart."
SearingTruth

Get "A Future of the Brave" - www.searingtruth.com

[antimason-2009]

"I'm actually curious as to what could he possibly have written to his children to attempt to justify what he knew he was about to do" - Whoever..

^^ 'When i was 12, some girl ditched/dissed/refused me...'

[antimason-2009]

and btw ... hellisfree.blogspot.com

[madreloca]

I'm actually curious as to what could he possibly have written to his children to attempt to justify what he knew he was about to do. How can anyone leave this kind of legacy to their children? And the poor Amish community, can you think of anyone less prepared for this kind of thing to happen? There are many Amish in my area and they are known to be very non-confrontational.
I don't know whats going on in our world these days when we start killing off our children. I'm not sure gun control is the answer although it may help. I think we need to pay more attention to each other, talk to each other. People are so cut off from each other these days that they have no one to vent to.
My thoughts go out to the families and the victims

[antimason-2009]

Its interesting to see EVERY SINGLE SHOOTING was a MALE! - sunflower79 at 01:26 AM : Oct 03, 2006


^ What the hell is that all about? You do know , if you are a believer, that your God is a FATHER and his SON Jesus came into this world as a MAN.
Didn't that chinese woman just kill herself because she killed her own child few weeks ago? How about that idiot girl who attacked another woman just get herself a child? Oh wait, Jezebel was a male too. Stupid feminists make the world more stupid.

The reality of the situation is that if some *** feminist like you hadn't broken that guy's heart when he was young, poked fun at him, made her *** male friends to bully him for no good reason, what happened was only a matter of time.

What is even more silly is the right to bear arms, the stupid second amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Get rid of it already.

Say, like in England, people attacked each other using these knives, the number of casualties in this particular incident would have reduced to, at most, one. If he didn't possess the guns, those amish people would have held him tight. It just goes to show that the amish people are stupid not to get along with technology. They, like the people of afghanistan, must have called the gun a devil like the afghans once termed russian tanks as such.

As far as these comments hurting amish is concerned, in case yall didn't know, amish people don't use the internet.

[antimason-2009]

Its interesting to see EVERY SINGLE SHOOTING was a MALE! - sunflower79 at 01:26 AM : Oct 03, 2006


^ What the hell is that all about? You do know , if you are a believer, that your God is a FATHER and his SON Jesus came into this world as a MAN.
Didn't that chinese woman just kill herself because she killed her own child few weeks ago? How about that idiot girl who attacked another woman just get herself a child? Oh wait, Jezebel was a male too. Stupid feminists make the world more stupid.

The reality of the situation is that if some *** feminist like you hadn't broken that guy's heart when he was young, poked fun at him, made her *** male friends to bully him for no good reason, what happened was only a matter of time.

What is even more silly is the right to bear arms, the stupid second amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Get rid of it already.

Say, like in England, people attacked each other using these knives, the number of casualties in this particular incident would have reduced to, at most, one. If he didn't possess the guns, those amish people would have held him tight. It just goes to show that the amish people are stupid not to get along with technology. They, like the people of afghanistan, must have called the gun a devil like the afghans once termed russian tanks as such.

As far as these comments hurting amish is concerned, in case yall didn't know, amish people don't use the internet.

[sunflower79-2009]

My comments in the previous message are regarding the shootings throughout the United States.
My prayers are with the families who have suffered and lost their loved ones. I beleive for those have lost their daughters that they are safe in heaven and for the girls who were injured I pray for a healing body and a renewed soul. God Bless

[sunflower79-2009]

Its interesting to see EVERY SINGLE SHOOTING was a MALE! Nothing but the usual actually. These Boys are proving themselves repeatidy to be unmanageable,ungrateful,self-centered,losers. What is going to have to change to make young MEN out of reckless Boys?

[p10716]

violence on tv and all the news channels who broadcast such things as the amish school shooting are to blame . 3 in one week ,think about it

[hhueff]

Stricter gun laws could prevent much of these incidents. Potential gun owners should go through an intense screening process, mental evaluation and waiting period. Qualified gun owners should be required to demonstrate a high level of accountability for the custody and safe storage of their weapon(s). If tobacco companies are now culpable for their products then a similar level of liability should apply to gun companies. Historically, hand guns were designed & manufactured to kill people. It would be hard to argue the same for tobacco products. I bet that those who try to defend gun ownership as the right of all Americans probably never had the misfortune of looking down the barrel of a loaded weapon. The people that commit these kinds of acts are cowardly and could never act out in the up close and personal manner that would be required with a knife or other weapon. To be sure that they will never have to be confronted by society for their crime, they take the cowards way out and turn the weapon on themselves. Enough is enough let's take the weapons away from the psychos ASAP!

[loudpipes3]

With all that is happening in the world; The Iraq war, the Muslems hating the US, the hate crimes, the school shooting stuff, --------Auugh! ---Is all THIS, a sign of the times to come? ---Because, as I can see, all this stuff has happened suddenly, ---in the last 10 years or so! ------This is NOT a good portend, of what it may come to be later! ------------------------Something to think about!

"CBS please wipe out all of these comments and shut this story down for comments. These people are adding salt to the severe wounds of the affected people. When did common sense become so uncommon?"-ojama

Yes, let's get rid of the First Amendment while we're at it. Give me a break.

www.politipoll.net

[FreddyB]

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States Of America, and to the republic for which it ONCE STOOD.........