Charles Carl Roberts IV (December 7, 1973 – October 2, 2006) was an American milk truck driver who murdered five Amish girls 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 born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His father is retired from the local police force. In 2004, his father applied to the state for a special license to provide paratransit service to the Amish. Charles earned a diploma through a home-school association, and neither he nor his family were Amish.

In 1990, Roberts worked as a dishwasher at Good 'N Plenty Restaurant in Smoketown, PA. Two of his co-workers were Lawrence Yunkin and Lisa Michelle Lambert, both of whom would be convicted in the December 20, 1991 murder of 16-year old Laurie Show in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Roberts was a commercial milk tank driver, employed by North West Foods.

Amish school shooting

On October 2, 2006, Roberts entered the one-room West Nickel Mines School at approximately 9:51 a.m. with a 9 mm handgun, 12 gauge shotgun, .30-06 bolt-action rifle, about 600 rounds of ammunition, cans of black powder, a stun gun, two knives, a change of clothes, an apparent truss board and a box containing a hammer, hacksaw, pliers, wire, screws, bolts and tape. He used 2×6 and 2×4 boards with eye bolts and flex ties to barricade the school doors before binding the arms and legs of the hostages.

He ordered the hostages to line up against the chalkboard and released the 15 male students present, along with a pregnant woman and three parents with infants. The remaining ten female students he kept inside the schoolhouse. The school teacher contacted the police upon escaping at approximately 10:36 a.m. The first police officers arrived about nine minutes later and attempted (unsuccessfully) to communicate with Roberts using the PA broadcasters in their cruisers.

Police had to break in through the windows when shots were heard. The gunman apparently killed himself along with five school girls. Three of the girls died at the scene, with two more dying the next morning from related injuries. Five girls were in the hospital in critical condition. Reports have stated that the girls were shot execution style in the head. The ages of the victims ranged from 6 to 13. Roberts fired at least 13 rounds from his 9 mm semi-automatic pistol.

Roberts was last seen by his wife at 8:45 a.m. when they walked their children to the bus stop to go to school in Bart Township. When his wife returned home at 11:00 a.m., she discovered four notes he had left to her and their children. Roberts reportedly contacted his wife while still in the schoolhouse and stated that he had molested two young female relatives (between the ages of three and five) twenty years ago (when he would have been 12), and had been daydreaming about molesting again. Both of the relatives in question have denied these claims. Among the items he brought to the school was a tube of KY Jelly, which investigators surmised he might have intended to use as a sexual lubricant. His suicide notes stated that he was still angry at God for the death of a premature infant daughter nine years prior.

Amish response to the crime

Although the Amish community grieved deeply about the terrible incident and certainly were very shocked about the tragedy they also believed it was right to forgive. The Rev. Schenck reports a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls said of the killer on the day of the murder: "We must not think evil of this man."

Jack Meyer, a member of the Brethren community living near the Amish in Lancaster County, explained to CNN: "I do not 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."

Dwight Lefever, a Roberts family spokesman, said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them.

Dozens of Amish neighbors attended Charles Roberts' funeral on October 7, 2006. He was buried in an unmarked grave in his wife's family plot behind Georgetown United Methodist church, a few miles from the one-room West Nickel Mines schoolhouse. One mourner stated that Roberts' wife was touched by the outward gesture of forgiveness by the Amish community. The schoolhouse was torn down eleven days after the tragedy.

Wikipedia.org

The Amish school shooting occurred on the morning of Monday, October 2, 2006, when a gunman took hostages and eventually killed five girls (aged 7–13) and then killed himself at West Nickel Mines School, a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, a village in Bart Township of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States.

Roberts entered the school at approximately 9:51 a.m. EDT with a shotgun, a handgun, wires, chains, nails, and flexible plastic ties which he used to bind the arms and legs of the hostages, and several stout wooden boards which he used to barricade himself inside.

Police found a length of two-by-six wooden board with ten pairs of metal eyehooks, presumably to secure the ten hostages. Provisions for an extended overnight stay, such as candles, toilet tissue, and a change of clothes were found at the scene. Two tubes of sexual lubricant were also later discovered at the scene, and Roberts indicated to his wife over the phone that he had dreams about molesting children, but police have found no signs that any molestation occurred.

He ordered the hostages to line up against the chalkboard, and sent away from the classroom a pregnant woman, three parents with infants and all fifteen male students. One female student escaped: nine-year-old Emma Fisher (whose two older sisters stayed inside).

The nine-year old, who had just started to learn English, left with the male students because she did not understand the gunman's orders. She had been sitting beside her brother and followed him out when he left. The gunman, a father of three children (two boys and a girl), remained inside the school house with the remaining ten female students. The school teacher, Emma Mae Zook, contacted the police upon escaping at approximately 10:36 a.m.

The first police officers arrived approximately nine minutes later and attempted to communicate with Roberts via the PA system in their cruisers. The 911 call transcript shows Roberts ordered the police that if they didn't pull back within two seconds, the children would be dead and he began firing when they did not comply.

Police broke in through the windows when shots were heard. The gunman killed five girls and himself. The oldest girl, 13-year-old Marian Fisher, appealed to Roberts to shoot her first, in an effort to spare the younger girls, according to her younger sister who survived. The younger sister, Barbie, appealed to him to shoot her next. She received 9mm bullet wounds in the hand, leg, and shoulder.

Three died at the scene and two more died early the next morning, with five more girls left in critical condition. Three girls were admitted to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, four to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and one to Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, state police said.

Reports have 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.

Roberts was last seen by his wife at 8:45 a.m. when they walked their children to the bus stop before leaving. When his wife returned home at 11:00 a.m., she discovered four suicide notes — one addressed to his wife, and one to each of his children.

Roberts reportedly contacted his wife while still in the schoolhouse and stated that he had molested two young female relatives (between the ages of 3 and 5) twenty years ago, and had been daydreaming about molesting again.

One note Roberts left indicated his despondency over his daughter who died shortly (roughly 20 minutes) after birth nine years earlier, and cryptically 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, apparently alluding to his later phone admission to sexually molesting two family members when he was younger.

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.

Roberts was a resident of nearby Georgetown, another unincorporated area of Bart Township.

On October 12, 2006, the West Nickel Mines School fell to the bulldozer; the school had been boarded up since the shooting occurred. The Amish plan to leave a quiet pasture where the schoolhouse once stood.

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 through the windows. But Janice Ballenger, deputy coroner in Lancaster County, Pa., 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." When questioned, a state police spokeswoman said that she could not immediately explain the discrepancy.

Victims

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, Lancaster, Pennsylvania October 2, 2006.

• Lena Zook Miller, aged 7, died at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania on October 3, 2006.

• Mary Liz Miller, aged 8, died at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware on October 3, 2006.

Injured

All of the hurt Amish schoolgirls were hospitalized.

• 6 year old female (Rosanna King) 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.

• 8 year old female (Rachel Ann Stoltzfus)

• 10 year old female (Barbara Stoltzfus "Barbie" Fisher)

• 12 year old female (Sarah Ann Stoltzfus)

• 13 year old female (Esther King)

Rachel Ann Stoltzfus, Esther King and Barbara Stoltzfus "Barbie" Fisher returned to school in the fall of 2006, although some have had to miss class time due to rehabilitation or surgeries. Sarah Ann Stoltzfus returned to school just before Christmas and despite a serious head wound, she is doing well in school. The youngest victim, Rosanna King, 6, remains in a semicomatose state although she appears to be improving.

Victims' plea

After the shootings it was uncovered that Marian Fisher, age 13 stepped forward and asked Roberts to, "shoot me first," in an apparent effort to bide time for the other, and younger girls being held captive. Following her plea, Fisher's younger sister Barbie who survived however, with injuries, also commissioned to be shot second.

The findings of the pleas became comforting in the aftermath of the tragic shootings, and both girls were subsequently hailed as heroes.

Amish respond with forgiveness

CNN reported a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls said of the killer on the day of the murder: "We must not think evil of this man."

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," he told CNN.

The Amish have reached out to Roberts' family. Dwight Lefever, a Roberts family spokesman said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them.

An article in a Canadian newspaper the National Post stated that the Amish have set up a charitable fund for the family of the shooter.

The Amish do not normally accept charity, but due to the extreme nature of the tragedy, donations were being 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.

Also amazing to some was that the fathers of the Amish girls who had been shot went to the killer's parents and asked what they could do to help them.

Aftermath

The school was demolished on October 12, 2006 and a new school, the New Hope School, has since been built near the original site, It opened on April 2, 2007, precisely six months after the shooting.

911 transcripts

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 are Amos Smoker, who first reported the presence of a gunman at the school; Roberts; and Roberts’ wife, Marie.

The tapes of the calls were transcribed by Lancaster County District Attorney Don Totaro. In some cases where the transcript indicates the line went dead, it is because the call was transferred to state police and was not recorded by Lancaster County, the prosecutor’s office said.

10:35:29- During this time, a pregnant woman, three parents with infants and all fifteen male students were told to leave the school by Mr. Roberts, The school teacher, Emma Mae Zook, contacted the police upon escaping at approximately 10:36 a.m. The first police officers arrived approximately nine minutes later and attempted to communicate with Roberts via the PA system in their cruisers.

911 Dispatcher: Lancaster County 911, do you need police, fire or ambulance?

Mr. Smoker: Yes, this is Amos Smoker.

911 Dispatcher: OK.

Mr. Smoker: There’s a, there’s a guy in the school with a gun.

911 Dispatcher: OK, what, what, what school, where at?

Mr. Smoker: White Oak Road.

911 Dispatcher: What city, township or borough is that in?

Mr. Smoker: How’s that?

911 Dispatcher: What city, township or borough is that in?

Mr. Smoker: Bart Township.

911 Dispatcher: OK, stay on the line, it’s state police.

Mr. Smoker: OK.

(Call being transferred to State Police)

State Police PCO: State Police Dispatch Center.

Mr. Smoker: Yes, this is Amos Smoker. (Line goes dead)

10:41:35

911 Dispatcher: Lancaster County 911.

Caller: Did someone call in for police at a school?

911 Dispatcher: What school, what school was it?

Caller: West Nickel Mines School.

911 Dispatcher: Nickel Mines School, somebody with a gun?

Caller: Yes.

911 Dispatcher: Hold on one second, did you call before? We transferred to State Police.

Caller: OK, someone’s coming out.

911 Dispatcher: Well, I don’t know, I’m going to transfer you, OK, I don’t dispatch them here, hold on, does anybody need an ambulance do you know?

Caller: I don’t know.

911 Dispatcher: OK, hold on, is he in the school?

Caller: I don’t know nothing, I don’t know.

911 Dispatcher: Alright, hold on.

(Call being transferred to State Police)

911 Dispatcher: Is this Amish school?

Caller: Yes it is.

911 Dispatcher: In Bart Township?

Caller: Yes.

Pennsylvania State Police PCO: Pennsylvania State Police, PCO Campbell, hello..

911 Dispatcher: Go ahead sir.

PCO Campbell: Sir, go ahead, State Police. (Line goes dead)

10:55:38- During this time, while the boys, teachers, parents and Emma fisher wondered what was going on inside, Roberts ordered the hostages to line up against the chalkboard and here he tells the dispatcher that if state police were not off the property in two seconds, he would kill the children. A few moments later, shots rang out.

911 Dispatcher: Lancaster County 911, do you need police, fire or ambulance? Hello.. Your cell phone is cutting in and out. Do you have an emergency?

Mr. Roberts : Yes.

911 Dispatcher: OK, what’s the address of the emergency?

Mr. Roberts : It’s on White Oak Road. I just took, uh, ten girls hostage and I want everybody off the property or, or else.

911 Dispatcher: OK, alright.

Mr. Roberts: Now.

911 Dispatcher: Hold on a second.

911 Dispatcher: Hello.

Mr. Roberts : Yeah.

911 Dispatcher: OK, what’s the problem there?

Mr. Roberts: Don’t try to talk me out of it, get em all off the property now.

911 Dispatcher: Sir, I want you to stay on the phone with me, OK? I’m going to let the State Police down there, I need to let you talk to them, OK, can I transfer you to them.

Mr. Roberts: No, you tell them and that’s it. Right now or they’re dead, in two seconds. 911 Dispatcher: (To unidentified person at County-Wide Communications): He won’t let me transfer.

(To Mr. Roberts): Hang on a minute, we’re trying to tell them, OK.

Mr. Roberts: Two seconds that’s it. 911 Dispatcher: Sir, listen to me. Listen... (Line goes dead)

10:58:39- At this point Mr.roberts wife called 911 just seconds after Charles Carl Roberts IV killed 5 kids and hiself to discover suicide notes on the kitchen table.

911 Dispatcher: Lancaster County 911.

Ms. Roberts: Yes, my name is Marie Roberts, my husband just called me on his cell phone and told me that he wasn’t going to be coming home and that the police were there and not to worry about it. And I have no idea what he is talking about, but I am really scared. And I wondered if, how I find out what’s going on?

911 Dispatcher: OK, where are you calling me from?

Ms. Roberts: I’m calling from my home.

911 Dispatcher: And what’s that address?

Ms. Roberts: 1084 Georgetown Road.

911 Dispatcher: What township, city or borough is that?

Ms. Roberts: Bart Township.

911 Dispatcher: OK, and your husband didn’t tell you where he was?

Ms. Roberts: No, he didn’t.

911 Dispatcher: He called you on his cell phone?

Ms. Roberts: Yes he did.

911 Dispatcher: OK, and, and all he said to you was that...

Ms. Roberts: I’m not coming home, um, he was upset about something that had happened twenty years ago, and he said he was getting revenge for it, I don’t think he was getting revenge on another person, I’m worried that maybe he was trying to commit suicide.

911 Dispatcher: OK, hang on the line, I’m going to transfer you to the State Police, OK? Ms. Roberts: Thank you.

911 Dispatcher: Hang on a second..

(Call being transferred to State Police)

PCO Bowerman: State Police Dispatch PCO Bowerman

Ms. Roberts: My name is Marie Roberts, my husband just called me and said that he wasn’t coming home and that the police were there and that he left notes for myself and my children and I’m worried that he tried to commit suicide somewhere. And...

PCO Bowerman : What’s his name?

Ms. Roberts: Charlie Roberts.

PCO Bowerman: OK, what’s, let me ask you a question, hold on for one second please.

Ms. Roberts: Yeah.

PCO Bowerman: You said your name again was?

Ms. Roberts: Marie Roberts.

PCO Bowerman: Marie Roberts, thank you.

PCO Bowerman: Ma’am, let me ask you a question, what kind of vehicle does your husband drive?

Ms. Roberts: He was using my grandpa’s pick-up, it’s a GMC.

PCO Bowerman: Color.

Ms. Roberts: Blue.

PCO Bowerman: Blue GMC.

Ms. Roberts: Yeah.

PCO Bowerman: One second. OK. ma’am, what’s your husbands name?

Ms. Roberts: Charlie Roberts.

PCO Bowerman: Charlie Roberts. And what does he look like?

Ms. Roberts: He is six foot two, short brown, you know like buzzed brown hair, um, he is thirty-two years old, wears glasses, I guess he’s like maybe 195 pounds.

PCO Bowerman: OK, you say he left notes?

Ms. Roberts: Yes.

PCO Bowerman: What did the notes say?

Ms. Roberts: Like, the thought of not my children, not seeing them grow up, like, let’s see, uh, I’m not even sure, here it is, my daughter Abigail I want you to know that I love you and I’m sorry I couldn’t be here to watch you grow up, that’s how the notes start.

PCO Bowerman: OK, hold on one moment. (Line goes dead)