Amish School Shooting

The WashingtonPost printed a timeline provided by Pennsylvania State Police of the hours leading up to the deadly Amish school shooting in Lancaster County: _3 a.m.: The gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV , arrives home from work after finishing his milk run, picking up milk from Amish farms. _7:30 a.m.: Roberts and his wife, Marie, begin getting their children ready for school. _8:45 a.m.: Roberts walks his children to the school bus stop. _9 a.m.: Marie Roberts leaves for a prayer group; Charles Roberts was to leave the house for a random drug test, a requirement for his job, but did not do so. ... Read Full Story

posted by Tony The following information is from a news conference held at 2 p.m. by Pennsylvania State Police: Linked from http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=local&id;=4620643 --- The teacher managed to call 9-1-1 at about 10:36 a.m. and alert authorities that a man with a gun had entered the school. Upon arriving at the scene, 9 minutes after being dispatched, police tried to talk with the suspect using the P.A. systems in their cars. As they did, the suspect called emergency dispatchers in Lancaster County and told them that if police did not pull back, he would start shooting people in 10 seconds. Officers tried to use the ... Read Full Story

Linked from http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/penn.shooter/index.html Charles Carl Roberts apparently commited this crime in response to something that happened to him several years ago. CNN reports the following update: --- At home, Roberts had left "rambling" suicide notes, Miller said. Roberts' wife found one and tried to call him. He returned her call on his cell phone and said he wouldn't be coming home. Miller said Roberts told his wife that "he was acting out to achieve revenge for something that happened 20 years ago." Roberts would have been 11 or 12 at the time the apparent slight occurred. Investigators also said they were looking into the ... Read Full Story

I read a story on CNN today about the Amish school victims and plans to raze the West Nickel Mines school building.  The Amish community is trying to decide if they should tear down the building and start fresh, or somehow use the building to help families and children find closure after the shootings.  I can't imagine asking one of those children to return to the same building.  How could they possibly concentrate on work and not be distracted by memories of the milkman gunman who killed so many young girls. There is so much attention on the Amish school shooting that if the ... Read Full Story

Linked from http://www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=5485628&nav=menu90_3    KGBT 4-TV (local Pennsylvania affiliate) reports the following update:    ----- Police now say the gunman who attacked an Amish school was 32 years old and sent the male students outside while keeping the girls in and blocking the doors.    Six people were shot to death at a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania's bucolic Lancaster County Monday, and at least three young girls were hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said.    It was the nation's third deadly school shooting in less than a week, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history.    ------    The gunman has been ... Read Full Story