Amish school shooting
Encyclopedia
The Amish school shooting was a shooting at the West Nickel Mines School, an Amish
one-room school
house in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, a village in Bart Township
of Lancaster County
, Pennsylvania
, on October 2, 2006. Gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV
took hostage
s and eventually shot ten girls (aged 6–13), killing five, before committing suicide
in the schoolhouse.
The emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation in the response of the Amish community was widely discussed in the national media. The West Nickel Mines School was torn down, and a new one-room schoolhouse, the New Hope School, was built at another location.
on the road. Survivors said that Roberts was mumbling his words and was not making direct eye contact. After the occupants of the classroom denied seeing a clevis pin, Roberts walked out to his truck and reappeared in the classroom holding a 9mm handgun. He ordered the boys to help him carry items into the classroom from the back of his pickup. Zook and her mother, who was visiting the schoolhouse, took this opportunity to escape the school and ran toward a nearby farm to get help. Roberts saw them leave, and ordered one of the boys to stop them, threatening to shoot everyone if the women got away. Zook and her mother reached the farm, where they asked Amos Smoker to call 911.
Roberts and the boys carried lumber, a shotgun, a stun-gun, wires, chains, nails, tools and a small bag. Also brought into the classroom was a length of wooden board with multiple sets of metal eye-hooks. The contents of the bag included a change of clothes, toilet paper, candles, and flexible plastic ties. Using wooden boards, Roberts barricaded the front door.
and allowed a pregnant woman, three parents with infants, and all remaining boys to exit the building. One girl also escaped, nine-year-old Emma Fisher (whose older sister remained inside). The nine-year old, who spoke only Pennsylvania German
, had not understood Roberts' order, "Stay here. Do not move, you will be shot." and followed her brother, Peterli, out of the building, leaving ten hostages.
call from the farm where Zook and her mother sought help was recorded at 10:36 a.m. In an article entitled Revisiting the Amish Schoolhouse Massacre, published August 22, 2007, the situation is described prior to the arrival of the first state police troopers: "An Amish adult male from this farm, with his two large dogs, took the bold opportunity to stealthily approach the windowless back wall of the schoolhouse. Hoping for an opportunity to help the little girls, he slowly crept around one side of the wooden structure and positioned himself as an observer next to a side window." The detailed accounting of the police response continues, "Observing that the first police patrol vehicle to approach the scene was not slowing down to stop, the Amish man quickly withdrew from his hiding place and sprinted towards the roadway to wave down the trooper, who did a fast U-turn and parked. That would be the last successful attempt at an unnoticed move upon the building by anyone."
The police, while waiting for reinforcements, attempted to communicate with Roberts via the PA system in their cruisers
. They asked Roberts to throw out his weapons and exit the schoolhouse. Roberts refused, again ordering the officers to leave.
By 11:00 a.m. a large crowd—including police officers, emergency medical technician
s, and residents of the village—had assembled both outside the schoolhouse and at a nearby ambulance staging area. County and state police dispatchers had briefly established telephone contact with Roberts as he continued to threaten violence against the children.
During interviews conducted later it became apparent that all of the girls knew of their fate. Some conversed among themselves throughout the ordeal. Shortly before Roberts opened fire, two sisters, Marian and Barbie Fisher, 13 and 11, requested that they be shot first that the others might be spared. Barbie was wounded, while her older sister was killed.
A child's loud screaming was heard from within the school. A team of officers was positioned just behind a shed attached to the rear corner of the schoolhouse and they requested permission over the radio to approach the windows. The permission was denied.
Troopers and local police officers assisted the surviving children, administering first aid. Troopers and local officers continued to tend to the girls, helping the emergency medical technicians provide first aid on the school playground. Ambulances arrived just as the wounded girls were being carried out of the schoolhouse. Helicopters landed shortly thereafter and those still living were taken away for medical treatment.
and one to Christiana Hospital in Newark
, Delaware
, reported a state police spokesman.
One of the surviving children was initially transported to The Reading Hospital and Medical Center via helicopter, and then transported to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia after being stabilized.
Reports stated that most of the girls were shot "execution-style
" in the back of the head. The ages of the victims ranged from six to thirteen.
According to the Washington Post, police and coroner accounts of the children's wounds differed dramatically; Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said Roberts shot his victims in the head at close range, with 17 or 18 shots fired in all, including the one he used to take his own life as police stormed into the school by breaking through the window glass. However, Janice Ballenger, deputy coroner in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, told The Washington Post in an interview that she counted at least two dozen bullet wounds in one child alone before asking a colleague to continue for her.
Inside the school, Ballenger said, "there was not one desk, not one chair, in the whole schoolroom that was not splattered with either blood or glass. There were bullet holes everywhere, everywhere."
As a result of their actions in the line of duty, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller presented the State Police Medal of Honor to ten Pennsylvania State Troopers in appreciation for their efforts to assist the victims. Local police officers and emergency personnel were presented commendations by the Bart Township Fire Company.
Jack Meyer, a member of the Brethren
community living near the Amish in Lancaster County, explained: "I don't think there's anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive
and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts."
A Roberts family spokesman said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them. Amish community members visited and comforted Roberts' widow, parents, and parents-in-law. One Amish man held Roberts' sobbing father in his arms, reportedly for as long as an hour, to comfort him. The Amish have also set up a charitable fund for the family of the shooter. About 30 members of the Amish community attended Roberts' funeral, and Marie Roberts, the widow of the killer, was one of the few outsiders invited to the funeral of one of the victims. Marie Roberts wrote an open letter to her Amish neighbors thanking them for their forgiveness, grace, and mercy. She wrote, "Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. Gifts you've given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you."
The Amish do not normally accept charity, but due to the extreme nature of the tragedy, donations were accepted. Richie Lauer, director of the Anabaptist Foundation, said the Amish community, whose religious beliefs prohibit them from having health insurance, will likely use the donations to help pay the medical costs of the hospitalized children.
Some commentators criticized the swift and complete forgiveness with which the Amish responded, arguing that forgiveness is inappropriate when no remorse has been expressed, and that such an attitude runs the risk of denying the existence of evil; others were supportive. Donald Kraybill
and two other scholars of Amish life noted that "letting go of grudges" is a deeply rooted value in Amish culture, which remembers forgiving martyrs including Dirk Willems
and Jesus
himself. They explained that the Amish willingness to forgo vengeance does not undo the tragedy or pardon the wrong, but rather constitutes a first step toward a future that is more hopeful.
, another unincorporated area
of Bart Township
, was last seen by his wife at 8:45 a.m. when they walked their children to the bus stop before leaving. When Mrs. Roberts returned home a little before 11:00 a.m., she discovered four suicide notes; one addressed to herself and one to each of their three children.
Roberts called his wife from the schoolhouse on his cell phone and told her that he had molested two young female relatives (between the ages of 3 and 5) twenty years previously (when he was 12) and had been daydreaming about molesting again.
One note Roberts left behind indicated his despondency over a daughter who died approximately twenty minutes after birth nine years earlier. He stated that he had "been having dreams for the past couple of years about doing what he did 20 years ago and he has dreams of doing them again", according to State Police
Commissioner Colonel Jeffrey B. Miller.
On October 4, 2006, the two relatives whom Roberts said he molested 20 years ago told police that no such abuse had ever happened, throwing a new layer of mystery over the gunman's motive and mental state during the shooting.
Miller said there was no evidence any of the Amish children had been molested.
The girls wounded in the shooting made measurable progress in the year after the shooting. Sara Ann Stoltzfus did not have full vision in her left eye but was back at school — she was not expected to survive. Barbie Fisher was pitching in school softball but had undergone another shoulder operation in hopes of strengthening her right arm. Rachel Ann Stoltzfus returned to school in the months after the shooting. Esther King returned to school in the months after the shooting, graduated, and was working on the family farm.
The youngest victim, Rosanna King, was not expected to survive and was sent home. She had serious brain injuries and does not walk or talk . Rosanna uses a wheelchair, but is said to recognize family members and frequently smiles.
Transcript of 911 calls made October 2, 2006 in connection with gunman Charles Carl Robert IV’s siege at an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa. The callers identified in the transcript: Amos Smoker, the same man who telephoned 911 reporting the armed invader at the school, Roberts and Robert's wife, Marie. In some cases the transcript indicates the line went dead because the call was transferred to state police and was not recorded by Lancaster County.
At 10:35, Amos Smoker placed the call on behalf of the school teacher, Emma Mae Zook, who had run to a nearby farm to summon help. About the time of this initial call for help, a pregnant woman, three parents with infants, and all fifteen male students were told to leave the school by Roberts. The first police officer arrived approximately six minutes later. As the first few troopers approached the building, Roberts ordered them to leave or else he would start shooting. An agitated Roberts continued to demand that police leave as the troopers attempted to communicate with Roberts via the PA system in their cruisers
.
At 10:41, a second caller reported the incident, and was transferred to the State Police.
At 10:55, Roberts was reaching the final stages of his plan. The bound girls had been arranged at the front of the classroom, near the chalkboard
. Roberts made two cell phone calls, one to his wife and the next one to police. He warned the 911 dispatcher that if state police were not off the property in two seconds, he would kill the children. The dispatcher attempted to delay him and put him in touch with the State Police, but Roberts ended the call. Two of the girls then began negotiating with Roberts. They pled for him to shoot them first. This allowed the girls a little extra time for possible rescue. At approximately 11:07 a.m., Roberts follows through with his threats and the sound of rapid gunfire was heard.
At 10:58, Mrs. Roberts called 911 after arriving home from a prayer study group meeting. She had discovered a suicide note left on the kitchen table and had received a brief and disturbing emotional phone call from her husband. The 911 dispatcher put her in touch with State Police.
premiered a television movie
about the Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania
, Amish
school shooting titled Amish Grace
, based on the book Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Donald Kraybill
, Steven Nolt
, and David L. Weaver-Zercher. Produced by Larry A. Thompson
and starring Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Tammy Blanchard
, and Matt Letscher
, the movie in its Palm Sunday
premiere broke network records in multiple demographics
, with more than 4 million viewers. It became the highest-rated and most-watched original movie in Lifetime Movie Network’s history in Households (3.8/2,916,449 viewers), Total Viewers (2.0/4,020,496), Women 18+ (3.5/2,729,834), Women 25-54 (2.7/1,156,363), Adults 18+ (2.4/3,649,266) and Adults 25-54 (1.9/1,585,667).
The Lifetime Movie plot summary is: When a group of Amish schoolgirls are taken hostage and killed in their classroom, their parents and the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, stun the outside world by immediately forgiving the killer. Ida Graber (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), mother of one of the murdered children, has a tougher time than the others accepting the tragedy, but in her anguish and pain, she begins a personal journey of renewed faith, ultimately accepting the heart-wrenching tragedy of losing a child; reconnecting with her husband (Matt Letscher
), family, and community; offering forgiveness to the killer; and even showing kindness and compassion to the killer’s widow (Tammy Blanchard
) and children – all in the form of Amish Grace.
The movie received many positive reviews; however, it also received criticism because the authors of the book Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy distanced themselves from the production out of respect to the Amish community. Others criticized the movie for blending facts with fiction.
, Steven Nolt
, and David L. Weaver-Zercher. "boneyard," a novel by Stephen Beachy
and an unverified Amish collaborator, Jake Yoder, deals with the shootings in a fictional way.
in the United States in less than a week, the others being the Platte Canyon High School shooting
on September 27, 2006 and Weston High School shooting
on September 29.
This was the twenty-fourth school shooting in the United States in 2006, according to the National School Safety and Security Services. The Bush administration held a conference to discuss the issue of school violence
.
Amish
The Amish , sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches...
one-room school
One-room school
One-room schools were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In most rural and small town schools, all of the students met in a single room...
house in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, a village in Bart Township
Bart Township, Pennsylvania
Bart Township is a township in southeastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. At the 2000 Census the population was 3,003.-Founding:The name of Bart Township apparently comes from a reinterpretation of the abbreviation "Bart." for "Baronet"...
of Lancaster County
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County, known as the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a county located in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of 2010 the population was 519,445. Lancaster County forms the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area, the...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, on October 2, 2006. Gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV
Charles Carl Roberts
Charles Carl Roberts IV was an American milk truck driver who murdered five Amish girls and injured five others before killing himself in an Amish school in the hamlet of Nickel Mines, in Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on October 2, 2006.- Personal life :Charles Carl Roberts IV was...
took hostage
Hostage
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
s and eventually shot ten girls (aged 6–13), killing five, before committing suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in the schoolhouse.
The emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation in the response of the Amish community was widely discussed in the national media. The West Nickel Mines School was torn down, and a new one-room schoolhouse, the New Hope School, was built at another location.
The hostage-taking
Roberts backed a pickup truck up to the front of the Amish schoolhouse and entered the school at approximately 10:25 a.m. EDT, shortly after the children had returned from recess. He asked the teacher, Emma Mae Zook, and the students if they had seen a missing clevis pinClevis pin
A clevis fastener is a three piece fastener system consisting of a clevis, clevis pin, and tang. The clevis is a U-shaped piece that has holes at the end of the prongs to accept the clevis pin. The clevis pin is similar to a bolt, but is only partially threaded or unthreaded with a cross-hole for a...
on the road. Survivors said that Roberts was mumbling his words and was not making direct eye contact. After the occupants of the classroom denied seeing a clevis pin, Roberts walked out to his truck and reappeared in the classroom holding a 9mm handgun. He ordered the boys to help him carry items into the classroom from the back of his pickup. Zook and her mother, who was visiting the schoolhouse, took this opportunity to escape the school and ran toward a nearby farm to get help. Roberts saw them leave, and ordered one of the boys to stop them, threatening to shoot everyone if the women got away. Zook and her mother reached the farm, where they asked Amos Smoker to call 911.
Roberts and the boys carried lumber, a shotgun, a stun-gun, wires, chains, nails, tools and a small bag. Also brought into the classroom was a length of wooden board with multiple sets of metal eye-hooks. The contents of the bag included a change of clothes, toilet paper, candles, and flexible plastic ties. Using wooden boards, Roberts barricaded the front door.
Hostages taken
He ordered the girls to line up against the chalkboardChalkboard
A chalkboard or blackboard is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulfate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Chalkboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or dark grey slate stone...
and allowed a pregnant woman, three parents with infants, and all remaining boys to exit the building. One girl also escaped, nine-year-old Emma Fisher (whose older sister remained inside). The nine-year old, who spoke only Pennsylvania German
Pennsylvania German language
The Pennsylvania German language is a variety of West Central German possibly spoken by more than 250,000 people in North America...
, had not understood Roberts' order, "Stay here. Do not move, you will be shot." and followed her brother, Peterli, out of the building, leaving ten hostages.
Police notified
The 9-1-19-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...
call from the farm where Zook and her mother sought help was recorded at 10:36 a.m. In an article entitled Revisiting the Amish Schoolhouse Massacre, published August 22, 2007, the situation is described prior to the arrival of the first state police troopers: "An Amish adult male from this farm, with his two large dogs, took the bold opportunity to stealthily approach the windowless back wall of the schoolhouse. Hoping for an opportunity to help the little girls, he slowly crept around one side of the wooden structure and positioned himself as an observer next to a side window." The detailed accounting of the police response continues, "Observing that the first police patrol vehicle to approach the scene was not slowing down to stop, the Amish man quickly withdrew from his hiding place and sprinted towards the roadway to wave down the trooper, who did a fast U-turn and parked. That would be the last successful attempt at an unnoticed move upon the building by anyone."
Police and emergency medical personnel arrive
The first trooper arrived at approximately 10:42.The police, while waiting for reinforcements, attempted to communicate with Roberts via the PA system in their cruisers
Police car
A police car is a ground vehicle used by police, to assist with their duties in patrolling and responding to incidents. Typical uses of a police car include transportation for officers to reach the scene of an incident quickly, to transport criminal suspects, or to patrol an area, while providing a...
. They asked Roberts to throw out his weapons and exit the schoolhouse. Roberts refused, again ordering the officers to leave.
By 11:00 a.m. a large crowd—including police officers, emergency medical technician
Emergency medical technician
Emergency Medical Technician or Ambulance Technician are terms used in some countries to denote a healthcare provider of emergency medical services...
s, and residents of the village—had assembled both outside the schoolhouse and at a nearby ambulance staging area. County and state police dispatchers had briefly established telephone contact with Roberts as he continued to threaten violence against the children.
During interviews conducted later it became apparent that all of the girls knew of their fate. Some conversed among themselves throughout the ordeal. Shortly before Roberts opened fire, two sisters, Marian and Barbie Fisher, 13 and 11, requested that they be shot first that the others might be spared. Barbie was wounded, while her older sister was killed.
A child's loud screaming was heard from within the school. A team of officers was positioned just behind a shed attached to the rear corner of the schoolhouse and they requested permission over the radio to approach the windows. The permission was denied.
The shooting
At approximately 11:07 a.m., Roberts began shooting the victims. The troopers immediately approached. As the first trooper in line reached a window, the shooting abruptly stopped. Roberts had committed suicide.Police action
It took the troopers about two and a half minutes to break into the school to assist those children who were not killed instantly. At about 11:10 a.m. a message was broadcast on the police radio "a mass casualty on White Oak Road, Bart Township, with multiple children shot.", and "at 11:11 a.m., police radioed dispatchers again, estimating 10 to 12 patients with head injuries. The first medical helicopter was dispatched."Troopers and local police officers assisted the surviving children, administering first aid. Troopers and local officers continued to tend to the girls, helping the emergency medical technicians provide first aid on the school playground. Ambulances arrived just as the wounded girls were being carried out of the schoolhouse. Helicopters landed shortly thereafter and those still living were taken away for medical treatment.
The gunman
The gunman, identified as Charles Roberts IV, was not Amish. He was a milk truck driver who delivered to several Amish farms in the Nickel Mines area (including some of the victims' families). He had three children and a wife, for whom he would later leave four separate suicide notes. When State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller interviewed Roberts' co-workers, they claimed to have noticed a "change" in him over the past couple of months. They also claimed that he seemed to return to normal in the week leading up to the shooting. Miller hypothesizes that this "calm" may have been when he (Roberts) decided to go through with the shooting. Miller also noted that Roberts' neighbors reported his mood as unusually upbeat and jovial during this time period.Aftermath
After the police got inside the schoolhouse, all of the wounded girls were taken to hospitals. Four had died at the school house and one survived until morning of October 3. All of the victims that survived the immediate attack were brought to Lancaster General Hospital, stabilized, and then transferred to hospitals with pediatric trauma care. Three of the children were admitted to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, four to Children's Hospital of PhiladelphiaChildren's Hospital of Philadelphia
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is one of the largest and oldest children's hospitals in the world. CHOP has been ranked as the best children's hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report and Parents Magazine in recent years. As of 2008, it was ranked #1 in the nation for...
and one to Christiana Hospital in Newark
Newark, Delaware
Newark is an American city in New Castle County, Delaware, west-southwest of Wilmington. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the city is 31,454. Newark is the home of the University of Delaware.- History :...
, Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
, reported a state police spokesman.
One of the surviving children was initially transported to The Reading Hospital and Medical Center via helicopter, and then transported to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia after being stabilized.
Reports stated that most of the girls were shot "execution-style
Execution by shooting
Execution by shooting is a form of capital punishment whereby an executed person is shot by one or more firearms. It is the most common method of execution worldwide, used in about 70 countries, with execution by firing squad being one particular form...
" in the back of the head. The ages of the victims ranged from six to thirteen.
According to the Washington Post, police and coroner accounts of the children's wounds differed dramatically; Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said Roberts shot his victims in the head at close range, with 17 or 18 shots fired in all, including the one he used to take his own life as police stormed into the school by breaking through the window glass. However, Janice Ballenger, deputy coroner in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, told The Washington Post in an interview that she counted at least two dozen bullet wounds in one child alone before asking a colleague to continue for her.
Inside the school, Ballenger said, "there was not one desk, not one chair, in the whole schoolroom that was not splattered with either blood or glass. There were bullet holes everywhere, everywhere."
As a result of their actions in the line of duty, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller presented the State Police Medal of Honor to ten Pennsylvania State Troopers in appreciation for their efforts to assist the victims. Local police officers and emergency personnel were presented commendations by the Bart Township Fire Company.
Amish community response
On the day of the shooting, a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls was heard warning some young relatives not to hate the killer, saying, "We must not think evil of this man." Another Amish father noted, "He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he's standing before a just God."Jack Meyer, a member of the Brethren
Schwarzenau Brethren
The Schwarzenau Brethren, originated in Germany, the outcome of the Radical Pietist ferment of the late 17th and early 18th century. Hopeful of the imminent return of Christ, the founding Brethren abandoned the established Reformed and Lutheran churches, forming a new church in 1708 when their...
community living near the Amish in Lancaster County, explained: "I don't think there's anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is typically defined as the process of concluding resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offense, difference or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution. The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness as 'to grant free pardon and to give up all...
and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts."
A Roberts family spokesman said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them. Amish community members visited and comforted Roberts' widow, parents, and parents-in-law. One Amish man held Roberts' sobbing father in his arms, reportedly for as long as an hour, to comfort him. The Amish have also set up a charitable fund for the family of the shooter. About 30 members of the Amish community attended Roberts' funeral, and Marie Roberts, the widow of the killer, was one of the few outsiders invited to the funeral of one of the victims. Marie Roberts wrote an open letter to her Amish neighbors thanking them for their forgiveness, grace, and mercy. She wrote, "Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. Gifts you've given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you."
The Amish do not normally accept charity, but due to the extreme nature of the tragedy, donations were accepted. Richie Lauer, director of the Anabaptist Foundation, said the Amish community, whose religious beliefs prohibit them from having health insurance, will likely use the donations to help pay the medical costs of the hospitalized children.
Some commentators criticized the swift and complete forgiveness with which the Amish responded, arguing that forgiveness is inappropriate when no remorse has been expressed, and that such an attitude runs the risk of denying the existence of evil; others were supportive. Donald Kraybill
Donald Kraybill
Donald B. Kraybill is a prolific author, lecturer, and educator on Anabaptist faiths and living. Kraybill is widely recognized for his studies on Anabaptist groups, and is the foremost living expert on the Old Order Amish....
and two other scholars of Amish life noted that "letting go of grudges" is a deeply rooted value in Amish culture, which remembers forgiving martyrs including Dirk Willems
Dirk Willems
Dirk Willems was a martyred Anabaptist who is most famous for turning around to rescue his pursuer, who had fallen through thin ice while chasing Willems after his escape from prison, to then be tortured and killed for his faith.-Life:...
and Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
himself. They explained that the Amish willingness to forgo vengeance does not undo the tragedy or pardon the wrong, but rather constitutes a first step toward a future that is more hopeful.
Schoolhouse demolished
The West Nickel Mines School was demolished the following week, on October 12, 2006. The site was left as a quiet pasture. The New Hope School, was built at a different location, near the original site. It opened on April 2, 2007, precisely six months after the shooting. The new school was intentionally built as "different" as possible from the original, including the style of the flooring.Possible motives
Roberts, who was, at the time, a resident of nearby GeorgetownGeorgetown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Georgetown is a small, unincorporated community located in Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is located approximately 54 miles from Philadelphia...
, another unincorporated area
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
of Bart Township
Bart Township, Pennsylvania
Bart Township is a township in southeastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. At the 2000 Census the population was 3,003.-Founding:The name of Bart Township apparently comes from a reinterpretation of the abbreviation "Bart." for "Baronet"...
, was last seen by his wife at 8:45 a.m. when they walked their children to the bus stop before leaving. When Mrs. Roberts returned home a little before 11:00 a.m., she discovered four suicide notes; one addressed to herself and one to each of their three children.
Roberts called his wife from the schoolhouse on his cell phone and told her that he had molested two young female relatives (between the ages of 3 and 5) twenty years previously (when he was 12) and had been daydreaming about molesting again.
One note Roberts left behind indicated his despondency over a daughter who died approximately twenty minutes after birth nine years earlier. He stated that he had "been having dreams for the past couple of years about doing what he did 20 years ago and he has dreams of doing them again", according to State Police
Pennsylvania State Police
The Pennsylvania State Police is the state police force of Pennsylvania, responsible for statewide law enforcement. It was founded in 1905 by order of Governor Samuel Pennypacker, in response to the private police forces used by mine and mill owners to stop worker strikes and the inability or...
Commissioner Colonel Jeffrey B. Miller.
On October 4, 2006, the two relatives whom Roberts said he molested 20 years ago told police that no such abuse had ever happened, throwing a new layer of mystery over the gunman's motive and mental state during the shooting.
Miller said there was no evidence any of the Amish children had been molested.
Fatalities
- Naomi Rose Ebersol, aged 7, died at the scene October 2, 2006.
- Marian Stoltzfus Fisher, aged 13, died at the scene October 2, 2006.
- Anna Mae Stoltzfus, aged 12, was declared dead on arrival at Lancaster General Hospital, LancasterLancaster, PennsylvaniaLancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...
, PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
October 2, 2006. - Lena Zook Miller, aged 8, died at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in HersheyHershey, PennsylvaniaHershey is a census-designated place in Derry Township, Dauphin County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The community is located 14 miles east of Harrisburg and is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. Hershey has no legal status as an incorporated municipality...
, PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
on October 3, 2006. - Mary Liz Miller, aged 7, died at Christiana Hospital in NewarkNewark, DelawareNewark is an American city in New Castle County, Delaware, west-southwest of Wilmington. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the city is 31,454. Newark is the home of the University of Delaware.- History :...
, DelawareDelawareDelaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
on October 3, 2006.
Injured
All of the surviving Amish schoolgirls were hospitalized.- Rosanna King, 6 years old, was removed from life support at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and sent home at the request of her family on October 4, 2006. Some reports claim the child showed signs of recovery and was sent back to the hospital. Her condition improved, though she was still greatly impaired from the shooting and remained at home.
- Rachel Ann Stoltzfus, 8 years old
- Barbie Fisher, 11 years old
- Sarah Ann Stoltzfus, 12 years old
- Esther King, 13 years old
The girls wounded in the shooting made measurable progress in the year after the shooting. Sara Ann Stoltzfus did not have full vision in her left eye but was back at school — she was not expected to survive. Barbie Fisher was pitching in school softball but had undergone another shoulder operation in hopes of strengthening her right arm. Rachel Ann Stoltzfus returned to school in the months after the shooting. Esther King returned to school in the months after the shooting, graduated, and was working on the family farm.
The youngest victim, Rosanna King, was not expected to survive and was sent home. She had serious brain injuries and does not walk or talk . Rosanna uses a wheelchair, but is said to recognize family members and frequently smiles.
911 calls
On October 10, 2006, the 911 transcripts were released.Transcript of 911 calls made October 2, 2006 in connection with gunman Charles Carl Robert IV’s siege at an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa. The callers identified in the transcript: Amos Smoker, the same man who telephoned 911 reporting the armed invader at the school, Roberts and Robert's wife, Marie. In some cases the transcript indicates the line went dead because the call was transferred to state police and was not recorded by Lancaster County.
At 10:35, Amos Smoker placed the call on behalf of the school teacher, Emma Mae Zook, who had run to a nearby farm to summon help. About the time of this initial call for help, a pregnant woman, three parents with infants, and all fifteen male students were told to leave the school by Roberts. The first police officer arrived approximately six minutes later. As the first few troopers approached the building, Roberts ordered them to leave or else he would start shooting. An agitated Roberts continued to demand that police leave as the troopers attempted to communicate with Roberts via the PA system in their cruisers
Police car
A police car is a ground vehicle used by police, to assist with their duties in patrolling and responding to incidents. Typical uses of a police car include transportation for officers to reach the scene of an incident quickly, to transport criminal suspects, or to patrol an area, while providing a...
.
At 10:41, a second caller reported the incident, and was transferred to the State Police.
At 10:55, Roberts was reaching the final stages of his plan. The bound girls had been arranged at the front of the classroom, near the chalkboard
Chalkboard
A chalkboard or blackboard is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulfate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Chalkboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or dark grey slate stone...
. Roberts made two cell phone calls, one to his wife and the next one to police. He warned the 911 dispatcher that if state police were not off the property in two seconds, he would kill the children. The dispatcher attempted to delay him and put him in touch with the State Police, but Roberts ended the call. Two of the girls then began negotiating with Roberts. They pled for him to shoot them first. This allowed the girls a little extra time for possible rescue. At approximately 11:07 a.m., Roberts follows through with his threats and the sound of rapid gunfire was heard.
At 10:58, Mrs. Roberts called 911 after arriving home from a prayer study group meeting. She had discovered a suicide note left on the kitchen table and had received a brief and disturbing emotional phone call from her husband. The 911 dispatcher put her in touch with State Police.
Lifetime Movie
On March 28, 2010, the Lifetime Movie NetworkLifetime Movie Network
Lifetime Movie Network is a cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC, a subsidiary of A&E Television Networks, LLC. A&E Television Networks is a joint venture of the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst Corporation and NBCUniversal. LMN offers women-oriented movies...
premiered a television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
about the Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania
Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania
Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania is a hamlet in Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA.The nickel mines that give the town its name were worked in a deposit of sulfide ore, principally millerite. The mines were originally opened in the early 18th century for copper, but were given up as...
, Amish
Amish
The Amish , sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches...
school shooting titled Amish Grace
Amish Grace
Amish Grace is a television film that premiered on the Lifetime Movie Network on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010. The movie is based on the 2006 Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, Amish school shooting and the spirit of forgiveness the Amish community demonstrated in its aftermath...
, based on the book Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Donald Kraybill
Donald Kraybill
Donald B. Kraybill is a prolific author, lecturer, and educator on Anabaptist faiths and living. Kraybill is widely recognized for his studies on Anabaptist groups, and is the foremost living expert on the Old Order Amish....
, Steven Nolt
Steven Nolt
Steven M. Nolt is professor of history at Goshen College and author of ten books, most of which focus on Amish and Mennonite history and culture. He is a frequent source for journalists and other researching Anabaptist groups. He was often quoted in the aftermath of the 2006 Amish school shooting...
, and David L. Weaver-Zercher. Produced by Larry A. Thompson
Larry A. Thompson
Larry A. Thompson is a Hollywood film producer, personal manager, book packager, author, and motivational speaker. He is founder and President of the Larry Thompson Organization, a Los Angeles based Talent Management, Motion Picture, Television, and New Media Production Studio.Having managed the...
and starring Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...
, and Matt Letscher
Matt Letscher
Matthew Letscher is an American actor.-Biography:Letscher was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He attended college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI where he was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity....
, the movie in its Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four Canonical Gospels. ....
premiere broke network records in multiple demographics
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
, with more than 4 million viewers. It became the highest-rated and most-watched original movie in Lifetime Movie Network’s history in Households (3.8/2,916,449 viewers), Total Viewers (2.0/4,020,496), Women 18+ (3.5/2,729,834), Women 25-54 (2.7/1,156,363), Adults 18+ (2.4/3,649,266) and Adults 25-54 (1.9/1,585,667).
The Lifetime Movie plot summary is: When a group of Amish schoolgirls are taken hostage and killed in their classroom, their parents and the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, stun the outside world by immediately forgiving the killer. Ida Graber (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), mother of one of the murdered children, has a tougher time than the others accepting the tragedy, but in her anguish and pain, she begins a personal journey of renewed faith, ultimately accepting the heart-wrenching tragedy of losing a child; reconnecting with her husband (Matt Letscher
Matt Letscher
Matthew Letscher is an American actor.-Biography:Letscher was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He attended college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI where he was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity....
), family, and community; offering forgiveness to the killer; and even showing kindness and compassion to the killer’s widow (Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...
) and children – all in the form of Amish Grace.
The movie received many positive reviews; however, it also received criticism because the authors of the book Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy distanced themselves from the production out of respect to the Amish community. Others criticized the movie for blending facts with fiction.
Books
Several nonfiction books have been written about the shooting, including Forgiveness: A Legacy of the West Nickel Mines Amish School by John L. Ruth, The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy by Harvey Yoder, Think No Evil: Inside the Story of the Amish Schoolhouse Shooting by Jonas Beiler, and Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Donald KraybillDonald Kraybill
Donald B. Kraybill is a prolific author, lecturer, and educator on Anabaptist faiths and living. Kraybill is widely recognized for his studies on Anabaptist groups, and is the foremost living expert on the Old Order Amish....
, Steven Nolt
Steven Nolt
Steven M. Nolt is professor of history at Goshen College and author of ten books, most of which focus on Amish and Mennonite history and culture. He is a frequent source for journalists and other researching Anabaptist groups. He was often quoted in the aftermath of the 2006 Amish school shooting...
, and David L. Weaver-Zercher. "boneyard," a novel by Stephen Beachy
Stephen Beachy
Stephen Beachy is a writer. He was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1965. His first novel, The Whistling Song, was published by W. W. Norton with cover illustrations by Curt Kirkwood in 1991 and his second, Distortion, by Harrington Park Press, in 2000 and was reprinted in December 2010 by Rebel...
and an unverified Amish collaborator, Jake Yoder, deals with the shootings in a fictional way.
Other contemporary school shootings
This was the third school shootingSchool massacre
A school shooting is an incident in which gun violence occurs at an educational institution.-Definition:The term school shooting most commonly describes acts committed by either a student or intruders from outside the school campus...
in the United States in less than a week, the others being the Platte Canyon High School shooting
Platte Canyon High School shooting
The Platte Canyon High School hostage crisis was an incident of a hostage taking and shooting that occurred at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, on September 27, 2006. The gunman, 53-year-old Duane Roger Morrison entered the school building, claiming to be carrying a bomb...
on September 27, 2006 and Weston High School shooting
Weston High School shooting
The Weston High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on September 29, 2006, in Weston High School in Cazenovia, Wisconsin, United States. The gunman, 15-year-old Eric Hainstock, that day entered the school's main hallway and fatally shot principal John Klang...
on September 29.
This was the twenty-fourth school shooting in the United States in 2006, according to the National School Safety and Security Services. The Bush administration held a conference to discuss the issue of school violence
School violence
School violence is widely held to have become a serious problem in recent decades in many countries, especially where weapons such as guns or knives are involved...
.
Additional reading
- Donald KraybillDonald KraybillDonald B. Kraybill is a prolific author, lecturer, and educator on Anabaptist faiths and living. Kraybill is widely recognized for his studies on Anabaptist groups, and is the foremost living expert on the Old Order Amish....
, Steven M. Nolt, and David L. Weaver-Zercher. Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, Jossey-Bass, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7879-9761-8. - John L. Ruth, Forgiveness: A Legacy of the West Nickel Mines Amish School, Herald Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8361-9373-2.
- Harvey Yoder, The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy, TGS International, 2007, ISBN 978-1-885270-70-2.