West Nickel Mines School shooting
[1][2][3] Gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV took hostages and shot ten girls (aged 6–13), killing six (five in the initial incident, and a sixth who succumbed to her injuries in 2024), before committing suicide in the schoolhouse.
Roberts backed a pickup truck to the front of the Amish schoolhouse and entered it at approximately 10:25 a.m. EDT, soon after the children had returned from recess.
Meanwhile, the boys carried in lumber, a shotgun, a stun-gun, wires, chains, nails, tools, a small bag, and a wooden board with multiple sets of metal eyehooks.
[5] Roberts ordered the girls to line up against the chalkboard and allowed a pregnant woman, three parents with infants, and all remaining boys to exit.
[6] Smoker's 9-1-1 call was recorded at 10:36 a.m. An article, "Revisiting the Amish Schoolhouse Massacre", described the situation before the arrival of the first Pennsylvania 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.
It continued, "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.
[9] By 11:00 a.m. a large crowd — including police officers, emergency medical technicians, 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.
Shortly before Roberts began shooting, two sisters, Marian and Barbara Fisher, ages 13 and 11, requested that they be shot first so that the others might be spared.
[11][12] Charles Carl Roberts IV (December 7, 1973 – October 2, 2006), thirty-two years of age, was a milk tanker truck driver who served several Amish farms in the Nickel Mines area (including some of the victims' families).
When State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller interviewed Roberts' co-workers, they claimed to have noticed a "change" in him during the months immediately before the shooting.
In one note Roberts left behind, he said the death of their daughter, who died approximately 20 minutes after birth nine years before the shooting, had "changed my life forever."
On October 4, 2006, the two relatives whom Roberts said he molested 20 years ago told police that no such abuse had ever happened, resulting in even greater confusion concerning the gunman's motive and mental state.
[16] K-Y Jelly, a lubricant often used as an aid to sexual intercourse, was also found in the schoolhouse among Roberts' belongings, possibly suggesting an ulterior motive for the incident.
The known callers include Amos Smoker (the man who made the first call reporting an armed invader at the school), Roberts (the shooter), and his wife Marie.
[5] At 10:35 a.m., Amos Smoker called 911 at the behest of the school teacher, Emma Mae Zook, who had run from the schoolhouse to a nearby farm seeking help.
About the time of this initial call for help, the shooter released a pregnant woman, three parents with infants, and all 15 male students.
Two had died in the school house, one was pronounced dead on arrival at Lancaster General Hospital, and two sisters survived until the early hours of October 3 when their life support was ended.
Janice Ballenger, a deputy coroner in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, counted at least a dozen shotgun pellet-inflicted wounds in one child alone before asking a colleague to take over and continue for her.
[20] 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".
[25] Marie Roberts wrote an open letter to her Amish neighbors, thanking them for their forgiveness, grace, and mercy.
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 children who were hospitalized.
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.
Sarah Ann Stoltzfus did not have full vision in her left eye but was back at school — she had not been expected to survive.
[54] Several nonfiction books have been written about the shooting, including Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David L. Weaver-Zercher.
