Third Fatal School Shooting in a Week: Amish Schoolhouse Targeted
School Shooting in Lancaster, PA
PARADISE, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A 32-year-old truck driver walked into an Amish schoolhouse Monday, binding and shooting three girls execution-style before killing himself, police said Monday.Seven others were wounded in the attack, which police said appeared to be a revenge killing for an incident that occurred two decades ago.
"It seems as though he wanted to attack young female victims, and this is close to his residence. That's the only reason we can figure that he went to the school," said Comm. Jeffrey Miller, Pennsylvania State Police.
"It's a horrendous crime scene," he said. (Watch police investigate shooting scene -- 1:00)
The shooting took place at Wolf Rock School in Paradise, a school run by the Amish community with about 27 students in grades 1 through 8.
One of the children died in the arms of a trooper, Miller said.
The gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, was a truck driver, said Miller. He was not Amish. He had three children, and left several notes for his family "along the lines of suicide notes," Miller said.
Police said he had barricaded himself in the schoolhouse with two-by-four and two-by-six pieces of lumber.
Fifteen male students between the ages of six and 13 were released from the school, Miller said.
At least five young girls with gunshot wounds were taken to area hospitals, a spokeswoman said.
Gunman let boys go
Miller said that during the attack, Roberts apparently told students to line up in front of the blackboard. He began to tie his female captives' feet together. Then he let the boys in the classroom leave.Miller said Roberts also allowed an adult female who was pregnant to leave and three other adult females who had infant children with them.
At the time he let them leave, the teacher was able to alert authorities, Miller said. Miller said Roberts called his wife while he was inside the school. She said that he couldn't go on any more and he was getting revenge for something that happened 20 years ago. (Watch aftermath of deadly school shooting -- 2:00)
Lancaster General Hospital initially received three young patients, ages 6 to 15 -- one in critical condition -- and expected to receive three more patients soon, spokeswoman Kim Hatch told CNN.
Two were transferred to Hershey Medical Center and another to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, while a fourth remains at Lancaster General, she said.
Another young female suffering from a gunshot wound to the head and right hand was taken to Reading Hospital and Medical Center, where she was in critical condition before she was transferred to Children's Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Lancaster County's 911 Web site reported dozens of emergency vehicles -- including at least nine ambulances -- were dispatched to Bart Township shortly before 11 a.m. for a "medical emergency." The Lancaster County emergency communications Web site showed 20 incident calls listed to the normally quiet Bart Township at 10:48 a.m.
Shortly after the attack, men, women and girls in traditional Amish clothing gathered in small groups outside the country schoolhouse along a dirt road. Horse-drawn carriages could be seen in a nearby parking lot.
The attack was the nation's third deadly school shooting in a week.
On Wednesday, a 53-year-old man entered a high school in Bailey, Colorado, where he held several female students hostage at gunpoint. He shot one girl before killing himself seconds after a SWAT team stormed inside the classroom.
A high school student near Madison, Wisconsin, is suspected of fatally gunning down his principal on Friday, after he was disciplined for carrying tobacco and being bullied
what the hell is going on? seriously??