Gunman storms school, kills female students
Three killed at the scene before shooter took his own life, police say




BREAKING NEWS
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 16 minutes ago
NICKEL MINES, Pa. - A 32-year-old truck driver took about a dozen girls hostage in a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday, barricaded the doors and shot to death at least three of the girls and then himself, authorities said. Seven other girls were taken to hospitals with gunshot wounds, some to the head.

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.

Lancaster County Coroner G. Gary Kirchner initially reported that six people were killed, but later said he wasn’t certain. Police said they found four people, including the gunman, dead in the schoolhouse.

The gunman, identified as Charles Carl Roberts, had been in the school for about 45 minutes before police arrived, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said.

Roberts called 911, threatening to shoot if the police didn’t leave, Miller said. When police tried to call Roberts’ cell phone, shots rang out inside.

Officers had to break windows to get into the school. By then, three young girls had been killed “execution-style” and the gunman was dead, Miller said.

The wounded included three girls, all critical and ages 6 through 12, who were admitted to Lancaster General Hospital, spokesman John Lines told NBC affiliate WGAL-TV.


Gunman spoke of 20-year-old incident
Police said Roberts, who lived nearby, called his wife from a cell phone at around 11 a.m., 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."

Roberts told his wife that he had also left a note for her and their three children.


Roberts entered the school, sent the teachers and male students outside and kept the girls in while blocking the doors, police said. He had wire ties that he used to bind the girls, police said.

Twenty-seven students are said to have attended the private school, which teaches first through eighth grades.

The school is situated among farmlands just outside Nickel Mines, a tiny village about 55 miles west of Philadelphia.

MORE ON RECENT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
• At least 6 killed in Pa. Amish school
• Wis. shooting suspect ‘a little wild’
• Colo. town mourns slain student
• 2 Las Vegas schools locked down
• Experts: No sure way to stop killings

Police and trained dogs had deployed around Mojave High and Elizondo Elementary schools in North Las Vegas, Nevada, and police were looking for an armed youth, KLAS-TV reported.

Monday’s violence followed two gun-related incidents that shook U.S. schools last week.

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

This report will be updated as information becomes available.

Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with people like this?
Like killing a bunch of innocent kids will solve your problems.
You want to end your life?
Fine, but don't take other people (CHILDREN) down with you, since they aren't the problem, you are.
Assholes like this one make me sick.

I just read this when I signed onto yahoo for my mail.

It is so awful

it makes me so scared.

Seems like more adults are shooting schools up now. The Canadian guy, the Colorado shooting, and this one

i wonder if there's a connection.
and why are older men targeting schoolgirls as a demographic for their anger? they seem like the least likey demographic to be angry at...

and i think the high media coverage on the local news, and near constant coverage (and semi subsequent glorification) of things like this on FOX news, MSNBC etc, may encourage/inspire copycat crimes.

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A school security expert said on the CBS news that this shooting might be a copycat.

What's next?

White men are pretty fucked in the head.

I heard about this earlier. its so fucked up. Have they said anything about what the thing that happened to him 20 years ago might have been?

What a psycho. Like killing innocent girls will make whatever was done to him disappear.

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We're about to enter a whole other realm of music...we're talking Beethoven, Bob Marley, Men at Work territory

I can't even imagine how that community will even begin to deal with such a horrible event. These are people so cut off from the modern world and today one of our modern horrors came crashing into their lives. Those children who survived will be traumatized for life. Can you imagine growing up completly sheltered from news of school shootings, murders, violence, etc and then witnessing something like that?

I wonder if any of them had even heard of events like Columbine.

To say that the amish are completely sheltered is somewhat insulting. A lot of them go to the same bars that non-Amish do. They don't drive, but they do hire non-Amish people with trucks to drive them to worksites and to doctors. Some even have cell phones that they charge outside of their homes. They read the papers.

What this shows is how easy it is to get a gun in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia has been dealing with gun violence for years (especially this year), but the western part of the state has reisted legislation that would limit purchases of guns to one per month. I don't know what kind of person would have a need for more than 12 guns in a year, unless they're war-buffs and are collecting memorabilia. But in general, if you need 12+ guns, you probably shouldn't even have ONE. Kids have been getting shot on the street in Philly all summer long, but now the violence has touched a community outside the city, and an extremely harmless one at that - Amish schoolgirls. I hope it's a wake-up call. Guns are finding their ways into the hands of the insane.

gee, thanks.

Only 5 girls were dead this morning, unless they're counting him as the 6th.

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cheeseburger lips!

There should be stricter gun laws and more therapists.. Seriously dude 20 years is a long time to wear cranky pants..

What I don't get are those hats ... ok, they wanna dress like they were in the past, ok, but why not some cool hat, I dunno, a stovepipe hat ... or something ... a pirate hat ... I dunno ... why not one of those uh ... flyer helmets or whatever, with googles ... anything but those cornball hats they wear ... seriously, are those the most dorky looking hats.

And if that ain't all, they all wear em!!

And the women wear bonnets, ya, but again, they wear the ugliest looking bonnets I ever saw ... Oh the dresses ... don't get me started. Why is the pioneer days their style?? Why pioneer days ... the worst fashion period in the history of the world .....

Thx

The NRA will fight any kind of suggestion to toughen gun laws. In fact the NRA could use this to argue for LESS restrictive gun laws.

I just watched the press conference about it on the news and the police said right before he started killing the girls he called his wife and told her he molested 2 family members a long time ago. So the police officers think that's possibly the thing that happened 20 yrs ago