UPDATE: Four girls killed 'execution style' at Amish school (AFP)

(Fair Warning: The rest of this report includes some very disturbing details)

Four girls killed 'execution style' at Amish school

02/10/2006 19h08

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A gunman shot girls in the head "execution style" at an Amish school in Pennsylvania state, killing four and wounding at least six others, police and officials said.

The gunman, a local truck driver Charles Roberts, was apparently acting in "revenge" for an incident that happened to him 20 years ago.

Roberts killed himself in the one-room remote Amish schoolhouse before police could get to him, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller told a press conference.

Miller confirmed three dead at the scene. "It appears that when he began shooting the victims, these victims were shot execution style in the head," Miller said.

http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/061002190815.rk7g3ooj.html

How could they have been responsible? Just sick.
And my high school tells me not to send my kid with a cell phone because he won't need it. Please.

:shrug:

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How awful. Poor kids.

This is the third school shooting in a week. I know of no way I can help, here in Philadelphia, when the crime is committed in Colorado or even Lancaster county PA
and the criminal has been killed. (The kidnapped apb's and fugitive stories going national make sense, because we can all keep our eyes open. But this?...If they are truly copycat crimes, and I'd be surprised if they aren't, then maybe they should be kept local.
I know this sounds like censorship.... no, I know it IS censorship, but I am horrified at the way vicious craziness seems to be transmitted across the country these days. How can we prevent it?

Why, I don't know

...this is so disturbing. :cry:

<http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/02/amish.miller/>

...(Miller identified the suspect as Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 32-year-old truck driver who worked nights. He said Roberts took his children to the school bus stop Monday morning as usual. That was the last time his wife saw him.)

Miller: She had left the residence, she came back home and discovered that there were several notes there that were along the lines of suicide notes to each of the kids. So she read these notes and she tried to contact him right away and was unable to reach him.

At approximately 11:00, he called her. He did not tell her where he was, but he stated that he wasn't coming home and that he had left notes for her and the children to explain his actions. And he said that "the police are here, but I'm not coming home." He told her he loved her, and that was it. And shortly thereafter is when the shooting commenced.

(Miller said the letters Roberts left behind were rambling and didn't seem to make much sense.)

Miller: Apparently, he did make a statement to his wife on the phone that he was acting out in a way to achieve revenge for something that happened 20 years ago. And I think that the location, the school, was probably chosen because it provided a close opportunist -- you know, an opportunity to attack where he knew he had young kids. For some reason I believe just based on what we know now at this point -- I mean, we've got a lot of work to do, but from what we know at this point, it seems as though he wanted to -- 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.

(More at link) <http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/02/amish.miller/>