Amish schoolhouse in the village of Paradise near Nickel Mines in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Police report that the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV a 32-year-old milk-tanker driver who lived nearby, was killed during a hostage stand off in the one room
schoolhouse. Reports currently indicate that three students and a teenage teacher's aide are dead, plus the man who fired the gun. The students are between the ages of 6 and 13, and the teacher's aide a little older.
Roberts entered the school at approximately 9:51 a.m. with a shotgun, a handgun, wires and flex ties which he used to bind the arms and legs of the hostages, and several 2x4 and 2x6 boards of wood which he used to barricade himself inside. He ordered the hostages to line up against the chalkboard, and let several go, including a pregnant woman, three parents with infants and the fifteen male students. The gunman, himself father of three children, remained inside the school house with twelve female students. The school teacher contacted the police upon escaping at approximately 10:36 a.m. The first police officers arrived approximately nine minutes later and attempted to communicate with Roberts via the PA system in their cruisers.
Police broke in through the windows when shots were heard. The gunman apparently killed himself. At least three girls are dead, with six girls injured. Five being sent to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and another to Christiana Hospital in nearby Wilmington, Delaware, all are listed in critical condition.
Reports have stated that the girls were shot execution-style in the head. The ages of the victims ranged from six to thirteen.
Roberts was last seen by his wife at 8:45 a.m. when they walked their children to the bus stop before leaving. When his wife returned home at 11:00 a.m., she discovered four suicide notes he had left to each of his children. Roberts reportedly contacted his wife while still in the one-room schoolhouse and told her "that he was acting out to achieve revenge for something that happened twenty years ago."
Police have so far refused to comment on what that was. This event, like the Platte Canyon High School shooting on September 27, 2006, seemed to target young women.
And there are still people campaigning to keep guns freely available to nutcases like this.
