West Nickel Mines School shooting: Difference between revisions
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This was the twenty fourth school shooting of 2006 in the United States according to the National School Safety and Security Services.<ref>[http://cbs3.com/topstories/local_story_275115123.html Lancaster Co. School Shooting Leaves Four Dead]</ref> |
This was the twenty fourth school shooting of 2006 in the United States according to the National School Safety and Security Services.<ref>[http://cbs3.com/topstories/local_story_275115123.html Lancaster Co. School Shooting Leaves Four Dead]</ref> |
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The Bush administration has taken notice of the recent atrocities in schools, and is hosting a conference to discuss the matter. <ref>http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/10/02/bush.school.violence.ap/index.html</ref> |
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[[pdc:Lengeschder Schuhl Incident]] |
[[pdc:Lengeschder Schuhl Incident]] |
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Revision as of 17:17, 3 October 2006
 | This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
The Amish school shooting occurred on October 2 2006 when a gunman took hostage and eventually killed a total of 5 people including 4 students and an assistant teacher in a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Paradise Township[1] near Nickel Mines in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.[2] Police report that the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV,[1][3] a 32-year-old milk-tanker driver who lived nearby, killed himself in the one room schoolhouse. Reports currently indicate that four female students and a teenage teacher's aide are dead, as well as the assailant.[4] The students are between the ages of 6 and 13, and the teacher's aide a little older.
Shooting
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 stout boards of wood which he used to barricade himself inside.[1] He ordered the hostages to line up against the chalkboard, and sent away from the classroom a pregnant woman, three parents with infants and all fifteen male students. The gunman, himself a father of three children, remained inside the school house with the remaining twelve female students. The school teacher contacted the police upon escaping at approximately 10:36 a.m.[1] The first police officers arrived approximately nine minutes later and attempted to communicate with Roberts via the PA system in their cruisers.[1]
Police broke in through the windows when shots were heard.[5] The gunman apparently killed himself. Five girls were killed, two of whom died early the next morning, with six additional girls left in critical condition. Three girls were admitted to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, four to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and one to Christiana Hospital in Delaware, state police said.[6]
Reports have stated that the girls were shot "execution"- style" in the head.[6][7] The ages of the victims ranged from six to thirteen.[4]
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 was contacted by 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."[8] One note Roberts left said he had molested children decades ago and had "dreams of molesting again," according to a statement by state police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller. Miller said there was no evidence any of the children had been molested.[9]
Roberts was a resident of nearby Georgetown, another unincorporated area of Bart Township.[10]
Other recent school shootings
This marked the third school shooting in the United States in a week after the Weston High School shooting on September 29 and Platte Canyon High School shooting, on September 27 2006.
It is also less than a month after the Dawson College shooting in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on September 13.
This was the twenty fourth school shooting of 2006 in the United States according to the National School Safety and Security Services.[11]
The Bush administration has taken notice of the recent atrocities in schools, and is hosting a conference to discuss the matter. [12]
References
- ^ a b c d e Fatal Shooting at US Amish School - BBC
- ^ Various sources have reported the school's name as Wolf Rock, Nickel Mines Amish School, Georgetown Amish School or the West Nickel Mines Amish School.[1][2][3][4]
- ^ Truck driver kills three in Amish school shooting
- ^ a b Fifth girl dies after Amish school shooting - CNN
- ^ Police: Pa. school gunman a truck driver
- ^ a b Patriot-News, Harrisburg
- ^ [5] "Five Killed at Pa. Amish School After Attack, Gunman Fatally Shoots Himself" Washington Post, 10/3/2006 viewed 10/3/2006]
- ^ Truck driver kills three girls
- ^ [6] "Amish School Gunman Said He Molested Children," New York Times, 10/3/2006. viewed 10/3/2006
- ^ [7]
- ^ Lancaster Co. School Shooting Leaves Four Dead
- ^ http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/10/02/bush.school.violence.ap/index.html
External links