West Nickel Mines School shooting
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The 2006 Amish school shooting occurred on October 2 2006 when a gunman killed multiple students at a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. [1] Police report that the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV[2][3], a 32 year-old milk truck driver who lived nearby, was killed during a hostage stand off in the one-room schoolhouse. Reports currently indicate that two students and a teacher's aide are dead, plus the man who fired the gun[4]. The students are between the ages of 6 and 13, and the teacher's aide a little older.
Timeline
Roberts entered the school at approximately 9:51 AM 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[3]. He ordered the hostages to line up against the chalk board, and let several go, including a pregnant woman, three parents with infants and the 15 male students. The gunman remained inside the school house with 12 female students. The school teacher contacted the police upon escaping at approximately 10:36 AM[3]. The first police officers arrived approximately 9 minutes later and attempted to communicate with Roberts via the PA system in their cruisers.[3]
Police broke into the building through the windows when shots were heard.[5] The gunman apparently killed himself before he could be apprehended by the officers. Seven girls are in the hospital in a critical condition. [6][7]
Reports have stated that the girls were shot execution-style in the head. The ages of the victims ranged from 6 to 13.
Roberts was last seen by his wife at 8:45 AM when they walked their children to the bus stop before leaving. When his wife returned home at 11:00 AM, she discovered 4 notes he had left to his children. Roberts reportedly contacted his wife while still in the one-room schoolhouse and stated "that he was acting out to achieve revenge for something that happened 20 years ago." [5] This event, like the Platte Canyon High School shooting on September 27 2006, seemed to target young women.
Roberts was a resident of nearby Georgetown, another unincorporated area of Bart Township.
Other recent school shootings
This marked the third deadly school shooting in the United States in a week after the Weston High School shooting on September 29 and Platte Canyon High School shooting, which took place on September 27, 2006, when 53 year-old Duane Roger Morrison entered a classroom armed and took the students inside hostage. Morrison, too, released most of his hostages except for the young females, whom he sexually assaulted, and later fatally shot one before killing himself. It is also the same day that two schools in Las Vegas, Nevada went into lockdown, after someone, apparently a former student, went by the school armed with an automatic weapon.
It is also only a few weeks after the Dawson College shooting in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in which Kimveer Gill shot randomly at students, killing an 18 year-old female and wounding many others before killing himself.
This incident marks the 24th school shooting this year in the United States. [8]
See also
References
- ^ 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 c d Fatal shooting at US Amish school
- ^ At Least 4 Shot, Killed at Amish School
- ^ Police: Pa. school gunman a truck driver
- ^ WGAL.com - News - Gunman Looking For Innocent Victims In Shooting, Police Say
- ^ Televeised Police Interview, Sky News Australia
- ^ Lancaster Co. School Shooting Leaves Four Dead
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