NICKEL MINES, Pa. — Calling on its faith for guidance, the Amish community here coupled sorrow with forgiveness Monday after a milk-truck driver armed with a small arsenal burst into a one-room schoolhouse, killing four girls and critically wounding seven others. He killed himself as police stormed the building.
The attack was methodical, gruesome and baffling. Charles Carl Roberts IV -- a 32-year-old father of three with no criminal record -- entered the schoolhouse with a gun in his hand about 10 a.m., State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said. Roberts, who was not Amish and had no known connection to the school, ordered the 15 male students, the teacher and several aides with infants to leave. Then he set about preparing for a siege.
According to Miller, Roberts lined up 10 female students, ages 6 to 13, and a young teacher's aide against the chalkboard. He wrapped wire and plastic ties around their ankles, binding their feet together -- or to one another. He barricaded the door with boards and piled-up desks.
Outside, the teacher and the boys raced for help, cutting through fields to the nearest farmhouse. The Amish eschew most modern technology, so none of them had a cellphone. Many homes here -- like the schoolhouse -- do not have phones, although Amish farmers often have a line running to the barn or corn crib.
At 10:36 a.m., the teacher reached a phone and dialed 911.
Inside the schoolhouse, Roberts waited. He had a shotgun, a semiautomatic pistol and a rifle, 600 rounds of ammunition, explosive powder, a stun gun, two knives, a change of clothes, and a bucket with pliers, a hacksaw and wire. At some point, Roberts called his wife on his cellphone. He spoke of a grudge from long ago, said he was getting even.
He kept the girls silent as he talked. On the other end of the line, his wife heard nothing but his voice.
State police pulled up to the pale-yellow building at 10:45 a.m., nine minutes after the call for help. They tried to contact the gunman using the public-address system on their squad cars. Roberts did not respond to them.
Instead, he called 911 and demanded they leave. If they did not back off within 10 seconds, he said, he'd start shooting.
Seconds later, gunfire erupted. Roberts shot the girls in the head -- one after another, in quick order -- with his 9-millimeter automatic, stopping once to reload. He opened fire briefly on the troopers as they approached, but did not hit them. Then he turned the gun on himself; he fell face-down on the floor, dead.
