# Police respond to Amish school shooting



## CJIS (Mar 12, 2005)

*Gunman Dead After Opening Fire At Amish School*

*Multiple Deaths Reported At Pa. School*

*







CBS News Interactive: School Shootings*

_(CBS)_ _NICKEL MINES, Pa. _A "number" of people were killed in a shooting at a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday, state police said.

Police say the shooting happened around 11 a.m. at the Wolf Rock School on Mine and Rock Roads in Paradise, Pennsylvania.

"There are a number of people dead. ... The exact number I do not know yet," state police Cpl. Ralph Striebig said.

The person who fired the shots was among those killed, Striebig said.

At least 12 ambulances and four medical helicopters were dispatched to the scene, KYW-TV, the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia, reported.

Authorities say several victims were taken to area hospitals. The ages, conditions and exact number of victims were not immediately available.

About three dozen Amish people were seen standing behind a police line, and at least two ambulances had left the scene. Television news helicopters also showed a person being taken away on a stretcher to a waiting medical helicopter.

A spokesperson from Lancaster General Hospital said they received three patients and have requested all available personnel to report to duty.

Officials at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center confirmed that victims were being admitted there. A spokeswoman said the hospital anticipated treating more than one patient, but did not know how many.

A web site states the Wolf Rock School, in the village of Nickel Mines, has a total student body of 27 and is classified as a coed religious school of Amish Association.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Video of the scene showed several Amish young men wearing hats and suspenders sitting outside the school, surrounded by dirt roads.

At least one person was taken to a medical helicopter on a stretcher.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Pennsylvania Amish Schoolhouse Scene of Multiple Shootings










Courtesy of WGAL











Courtesy of WGAL











Courtesy of WGAL











Courtesy of WGAL

*Story by **wgal.com*

Police responded to a multiple shooting and hostage situation in eastern Lancaster County this morning at a small, one-room Amish schoolhouse, where a state police officials said "a number" of people were shot to death. 
News 8 reporter Anne Shannon said people who were inside the scene told her that Lancaster County has never seen a tragedy like this. 
"This is definitely an enormous scene," Shannon said. 
The scene is along the 4800 block of Mine Road in Bart Township. Early reports indicate that man named Roy entered the schoolhouse this morning and started making threats. Some people in the Amish community learned about the situation and contacted police. Negotiations took place. But at some point, at least 10 shots were fired within the school. Police said the hostage taker shot himself. 
Lancaster General Hospital has called in all available personnel. They have been told to be prepared for a large number of patients. 
John Lines of Lancaster General Hospital said so far they have received three "pediatric" patients. One of them is reportedly in critical condition. 
Hershey Medical Center in Dauphin County has also been warned that they might be receiving patients. 
News 8 is stressing that the situation does _not _involve the Faith Mennonite School or Bart-Colerain Elementary, which are near the scene. 
Stay with News 8 and WGAL.com for updates on this breaking news situation.

WGAL Slideshow of Images:
Related To Story
http://www.wgal.com/news/9981693/detail.html

Copyright 2006 by WGAL.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Live video feed:
http://www.wgal.com/video/9982356/index.html


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## DoD102 (Sep 9, 2004)

what a shame!


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## ArchAngel2 (Oct 11, 2005)

What is wrong whith these people?


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## PBiddy35 (Aug 27, 2004)

The news said the guy had the boys and teachers leave the room just like in Col. Disgusting how nuts will copy each other. Must have wanted all the attention that last jerk got.


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## Enforcer174 (Apr 24, 2004)

What the hell is going on these past couple of weeks with school shootings? This world is messed up!!!


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## badogg88 (Dec 17, 2003)

I honestly think a bunch of these kids got on Myspace or those other websites and told each other to shoot up their schools this week. Wouldn't suprise me in the least. Even the "older" people could have been in on it. A sick sick world out there. Definitely makes me not want to raise kids in it. Or at least home school them.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*3 Girls Dead in Amish School Shooting*

Last Edited: Monday, 02 Oct 2006, 7:04 PM EDTCreated: Monday, 02 Oct 2006, 12:39

PM EDT









A body is carried from a schoolhouse, in which police say a gunman killed several people, in Nickel Mines, Pa. on Monday, Oct. 2, 2006. A 32-year-old milk truck driver took about a dozen girls hostage in the one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday, barricaded the doors with boards and shot several people, killing at least three of the girls and apparently himself, authorities said. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)*Amish School Shooting*

By MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press Writer

NICKEL MINES, Pa. -- A milk-truck driver carrying three guns and a grudge stormed a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday, sent the boys and adults outside, barricaded the doors with two-by-fours, and then opened fire on a dozen girls, killing three of them before committing suicide. Eight other victims were critically wounded, state police said.
It was the nation's third deadly school shooting in less than a week, and it sent shock waves through Lancaster County's bucolic Amish country, a picturesque landscape of horse-drawn buggies, green pastures and neat-as-a-pin farms, where violent crime is virtually nonexistent.
Most of the victims had been shot, execution-style, at point-blank range, after being lined up along the chalkboard, their feet bound with wire and plastic ties, authorities said.
"This is a horrendous, horrific incident for the Amish community. They're solid citizens in the community. They're good people. They don't deserve ... no one deserves this," State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said.
The attack bore similarities to a deadly school shooting last week in Bailey, Colo., and authorities there raised the possibility that the Pennsylvania attack was a copycat crime.
The gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 31-year-old truck driver from the nearby town of Bart, was bent on killing young girls as a way of "acting out in revenge for something that happened 20 years ago" when he was a boy, Miller said.
Miller refused to say what that grudge was.
Roberts was not Amish and appeared to have nothing against the Amish community, Miller said. Instead, Miller said, he apparently picked the school because it was close by, there were girls there, and it had little or no security.
Miller said Roberts was apparently preparing for a long siege, arming himself with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun and a rifle, along with a bag of about 600 rounds of ammunition, two cans of smokeless powder, two knives and a stun gun on his belt. He also had rolls of tape, various tools and a change of clothes.
Roberts had left several rambling notes to his wife and three children that Miller said were "along the lines of suicide notes." The gunman also called his wife during the siege by cell phone to tell her he was getting even for some long-ago offense, according to Miller.
From the suicide notes and telephone calls, it was clear Roberts was "angry at life, he was angry at God," Miller said. And it was clear from interviews with his co-workers at the dairy that his mood had darkened in recent days and he had stopped chatting and joking around with fellow employees and customers, the officer said.
Miller said that Roberts had been scheduled to take a random drug test on Monday. But the officer said it was not clear what role that may have played in the attack.
Miller said investigators were looking into the possibility the attack may have been related to the death of one of Roberts' own children. According to an obituary, Roberts and his wife, Marie, lost a daughter shortly after she was born in 1997.
As rescue workers and investigators tromped over the surrounding farmland, looking for evidence around this tiny village about 55 miles west of Philadelphia, dozens of people in traditional plain Amish clothing watched -- the men in light-colored shirts, dark pants and broad-brimmed straw farmer's hats, the women in bonnets and long dark dresses.
Reporters were kept away from the school after the shooting, and the Amish were reluctant to speak with the media, as is their custom.
The victims were members of the Old Order Amish. Lancaster County is home to some 20,000 Old Order Amish, who eschew automobiles, electricity, computers, fancy clothes and most other modern conveniences, live among their own people, and typically speak a German dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch.
Bob Allen, a clerk at a bookstore in the Amish country tourist town of Intercourse, said residents see the area as being safe and the Amish as peaceful people. "It just goes to show there's no safe place. There's really no such thing," he said.
The shooting took place at the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School, a neat white building set amid green fields, with a square white horse fence around the schoolyard. The school had about 25 to 30 students, ages 6 to 13.
According to investigators, Roberts walked his children to the school bus stop, then backed his truck up to the Amish school, unloaded his weapons and several pieces of lumber, and walked in around 10 a.m. He released about 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three women with babies, Miller said.
He barricaded the doors with two-by-fours two-by-sixes nailed into place, piled-up desks and flexible plastic ties, made the remaining girls line up along a blackboard, and tied their feet together with wire ties and plastic ties, Miller said.
The teacher and another adult at the school fled to a farmhouse nearby, and someone there called 911 to report a gunman holding students hostage.
Roberts apparently called his wife around 11 a.m., saying he was taking revenge for an old grudge, Miller said. Moments later, Roberts told a dispatcher he would open fire on the children if police didn't back away from the building. Within seconds, troopers heard gunfire. They smashed the windows to get inside, and found his body.
Miller said he had no immediate evidence that the victims were sexually assaulted.
Killed were two students, and a female teacher's aide who was 15 or 16 years old, authorities said.
No one answered the door at Roberts' small, one-story home on Tuesday afternoon. Children's toys were strewn on the porch and in the yard.
A family spokesman, Dwight LeFever, read a short statement from Roberts' wife that said, in part, "Our hearts are broken, our lives are shattered, and we grieve for the innocence and lives that were lost today. Above all, please pray for the families who lost children and please pray too for our family and children."
The shootings were disturbingly similar to an attack last week at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colo., where a man singled out several girls as hostages in a school classroom and then killed one of them and himself. Authorities said the man in Colorado sexually molested the girls.
"If this is some kind of a copycat, it's horrible and of concern to everybody, all law enforcement," said Monte Gore, undersheriff of Park County, Colo.
Miller, though, said he believed the Pennsylvania attack was not a copycat crime: "I really believe this was about this individual and what was going on inside his head."
On Friday, a school principal was shot to death in Cazenovia, Wis. A 15-year-old student, described as upset over a reprimand, was charged with murder.
The Pennsylvania attack was the deadliest school shooting since a teenager went on a rampage last year on an Indian reservation in Red Lake, Minn., killing 10 people in all, including five students, a teacher, a security guard and himself.
Nationwide, the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo., remains the deadliest school shooting, with 15 dead, including the two teenage gunmen.
In Pennsylvania's insular Amish country, the outer world has intruded on occasion. In 1999, two Amish men were sent to jail for buying cocaine from a motorcycle gang and selling it to young people in their community.
There were four murders in Lancaster County in 2005, including the killings of a non-Amish couple were shot to death in their Lititz home in November by their daughter's 18-year-old boyfriend.
Kenneth Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services consulting firm in Cleveland, said the Colorado and Pennsylvania crimes underscore the lesson that no school is automatically safe from an attack.
"These incidents can happen to a one-classroom schoolhouse to a large urban school," he said. "The only thing that scares me more than an armed intruder in a school is school and safety officials who believe it can't happen here."

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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## badogg88 (Dec 17, 2003)

The shooting in Colorado was a kid. The Amish one wasn't a kid, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they can't meet up on myspace and plan some nationwide thing. Not saying that's what happened, but it was the first thing that came to my mind.


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## Andy0921 (Jan 12, 2006)

This shit is crazy!I feel so bad for those amish people! I have actually been out there in amish country, and there very nice people. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the little girls.


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## justanotherparatrooper (Aug 27, 2006)

badogg88 said:


> The shooting in Colorado was a kid. The Amish one wasn't a kid, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they can't meet up on myspace and plan some nationwide thing. Not saying that's what happened, but it was the first thing that came to my mind.


 the "kid" in colorado was 53 and he sexually assaulted atleast one of the girls


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

5 girls dead in Amish school shooting 

By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press Writer 

NICKEL MINES, Pa. - Two more children died Tuesday morning of wounds from the shootings at an Amish schoolhouse, raising the death toll to five girls plus the gunman who apparently was spurred by a two-decades-old grudge.

The toll from the nation's third deadly school shooting in less than a week rose twice within a matter of hours Tuesday with the deaths of a 9-year-old girl at Christiana Hospital in Delaware and a 7-year-old girl at Penn State Children's Hospital in Hershey.
Five additional girls were hospitalized.
The Bush administration on Monday called for a school violence summit to be held next week with education and law enforcement officials to discuss possible federal action to help communities prevent violence and deal with its aftermath.
State police spokeswoman Linette Quinn said the two girls who died early Tuesday had suffered "very severe injuries, but the other ones are coming along very well."
The 9-year-old girl died about 1 a.m., and the 7-year-old girl died about 4:30 a.m.
"Her parents were with her," hospital spokeswoman Amy Buehler Stranges said of the 7-year-old. "She was taken off life support and she passed away shortly after."
Authorities said the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, wrote what authorities described as suicide notes, took guns and ammunition and went to a nearby one-room schoolhouse, where he opened fire on several girls and took his own life, authorities said.
Roberts, a father of three from nearby Bart Township and was not Amish, did not appear to be targeting the Amish and apparently chose the school because he was bent on killing young girls as a way of "acting out in revenge for something that happened 20 years ago," said state police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller.
"This is a horrendous, horrific incident for the Amish community. They're solid citizens in the community. They're good people. They don't deserve ... no one deserves this," Miller said.
The names of the dead were not immediately released.
Of the injured, a 6-year-old girl remained in critical condition and a 13-year-old girl was in serious condition at Penn State Children's Hospital, spokeswoman Buehler Stranges said. She said the names of the children were not being released.
Three girls, ages 8, 10 and 12, were flown to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where they were out of surgery but remained in critical condition, spokeswoman Peggy Flynn said.
Roberts brought with him supplies necessary for a lengthy siege, including three guns, a stun gun, two knives, a pile of wood and a bag with 600 rounds of ammunition, police said. He also had a change of clothing, toilet paper, bolts and hardware and rolls of clear tape.
He released about 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three women with infants, barred the doors with desks and wood and secured them with nails, bolts and flexible plastic ties. He then made the girls line up along a blackboard and tied their feet together.
The teacher and another adult fled to a nearby farmhouse, and authorities were called at about 10:30 a.m. Miller said Roberts apparently called his wife from a cell phone at around 11 a.m., saying he was taking revenge for an old grudge. Miller declined to say what the grudge could have been.
"It seems as though he wanted to attack young, female victims," Miller said.

Miller told NBC's "Today" that Roberts lost a daughter "approximately three years ago" and that that may have been a factor in the shooting. 
He said a teacher had to run to a farm house to call police because there wasn't one at the school, in keeping with Amish custom. 
Parents refused to fly in planes — again in keeping with Amish tradition — and had to be driven to see their children at hospitals, Miller told "Today." Some were taken to the wrong hospitals in the confusion, Miller said. 
From the suicide notes and telephone calls, it was clear Roberts was "angry at life, he was angry at God," and co-workers said his mood had darkened in recent days, Miller said. 
In a statement released to reporters, the gunman's wife, Marie Roberts, called her husband "loving, supportive and thoughtful." 
"He was an exceptional father," she said. "He took the kids to soccer practice and games, played ball in the backyard and took our 7-year-old daughter shopping. He never said no when I asked him to change a diaper." 
"Our hearts are broken, our lives are shattered, and we grieve for the innocence and lives that were lost today," she said. "Above all, please pray for the families who lost children and please pray too for our family and children." 
The attack bore similarities to a deadly school shooting last week in Bailey, Colo., but Miller said he believed the Pennsylvania attack was not a copycat crime. "I really believe this was about this individual and what was going on inside his head," he said. On Friday, a school principal was shot to death in Cazenovia, Wis. A 15-year-old student, described as upset over a reprimand, was charged with murder.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Gunman said he molested girls long ago*

By MARK SCOLFORO 
Associated Press Writer

QUARRYVILLE, Pa. (AP) -- The gunman who killed five girls in an Amish schoolroom confided to his wife during the siege that he molested two relatives 20 years ago when he was boy and was tormented by dreams of doing it again, authorities said Tuesday.
Investigators also said that Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, plotted his takeover of the school for nearly a week and that the items he brought - including flexible plastic ties, eyebolts and lubricating jelly - suggest he may have been planning to sexually assault the Amish girls before police closed in.
"It's very possible that he intended to victimize these children in many ways prior to executing them and killing himself," State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said. But Roberts "became disorganized when we arrived," and shot himself in the head.
Holding up a copy of the gunman's suicide note at a packed news conference, Miller also suggested that Roberts was haunted by the death of his prematurely born daughter in 1997. The baby, Elise, died 20 minutes after being delivered, Miller said.

Elise's death "changed my life forever," the milk truck driver and father of three wrote to his wife. "I haven't been the same since it affected me in a way I never felt possible. I am filled with so much hate, hate toward myself hate towards God and unimaginable emptyness it seems like everytime we do something fun I think about how Elise wasn't here to share it with us and I go right back to anger."
The state police commissioner identified the demons in Roberts' head a day after the shooting rampage shattered the sense of calm in Lancaster County's bucolic Pennsylvania Dutch Country, where the Amish live a peaceful, turn-the-other-cheek existence in an 18th-century world with no automobiles and no electrical appliances.
"He certainly was very troubled psychologically deep down and was dealing with things that nobody else knew he was dealing with," Miller said.
The death toll rose to six Tuesday - including the gunman - when two girls died of their wounds.
During the standoff, Roberts told his wife in a cell phone call from the one-room schoolhouse that he molested two female relatives when they were 3 to 5 years old, Miller said. Roberts would have been around 11 or 12 at the time. Also, in a suicide note left for his family, he said he "had dreams about doing what he did 20 years ago again," Miller said.
Police could not immediately confirm Roberts' claim that he molested two relatives. Family members knew nothing of molestation in his past, Miller said. Police located the two relatives and were hoping to interview them.
Roberts had planned the attack for nearly a week, buying plastic ties from a hardware store on Sept. 26 and several other items less than an hour before entering the school, Miller said.
The crime bore some resemblance to an attack on a high school in Bailey, Colo., where a 53-year-old man took six girls hostage and sexually assaulted them before fatally shooting one girl and killing himself. That attack occurred last Wednesday, the day after Roberts began buying materials for his siege.
Using a checklist that was later found in his pickup truck, Roberts brought to the school three guns, a stun gun, two knives, a pile of wood for barricading the doors, and a bag with 600 rounds of ammunition, police said. He also had a change of clothing, indicating he had planned a long siege, police said.
He sent the boys and several adults away and bound the girls together in a line at the blackboard. Miller on Tuesday revealed that one of the girls was able to escape with the boys.
A two-by-four piece of lumber found in the school had 10 large eyebolts spaced about 10 inches apart, suggesting that Roberts may have planned to truss up the girls and sexually assault them, Miller said. "It's important to note that we had 10 victims at that time that were in the school," he said.
The girls left in the room were shot at close range shortly after police arrived, Miller said.
"We're quite certain, based on what we know, that he had no intention of coming out of there alive," Miller said.
At the time Roberts' wife received the phone call, she was attending a meeting of a prayer group she led that prayed for the community's schoolchildren.
The victims were identified as Naomi Rose Ebersole, 7; Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12; Marian Fisher, 13; Mary Liz Miller, 8; and her sister Lena Miller, 7. Stoltzfus' sister was among the wounded.
Four other girls were in critical condition and one was in serious condition. They ranged in age from 6 to 13.
Church members visited with the victims' families Tuesday, preparing meals and doing household chores, while Amish elders planned the funerals. An Amish woman who helped comfort family members said they were being sustained by prayer.
"It's a tragedy we've never seen before," said the woman, whose father was a church bishop. Like many Amish, she declined to give her name. "They said it was a happy school," she said. "The children were happy, the teachers were happy."
Roberts, a father from the nearby town of Bart, was not Amish and did not appear to have anything against the Amish, Miller said. He said Roberts was bent on killing girls and apparently figured he could succeed at the serene schoolhouse.
Sam Stoltzfus, 63, an Amish woodworker who lives a few miles away from the shooting scene, said his grandchildren were full of questions when they came home from another Amish school.
"They were terrified," said Stoltzfus, whose son took the grandchildren to school Tuesday morning so they wouldn't have to walk by themselves. "They wanted to know: What was wrong with him? Why was he doing that?"
Stoltzfus said the victims' families will be sustained by their faith.
"We think it was God's plan and we're going to have to pick up the pieces and keep going," he said. "A funeral to us is a much more important thing than the day of birth because we believe in the hereafter. The children are better off than their survivors."
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AP Photo/MEL EVANS









*AP VIDEO*Amish School Shooter Had 'Dreams of Molesting'








*AP VIDEO*Rendell Expresses Sympathy to Amish Community








*AP VIDEO*Hospital: Amish Girl Died, Surrounded by Family

AP reporter Michael Rubinkam contributed to this report.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Amish schoolgirl hoped to spare others* 
By MARK SCOLFORO 
Associated Press Writer

GEORGETOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Under a cold, steady drizzle, the Amish drove in horse and buggy to a farmland cemetery Friday to bury the fifth of five girls shot to death by an intruder as new details emerged of heroism inside their schoolhouse.
Two of the survivors of the shooting told their parents that 13-year-old Marian Fisher, one of the slain girls, asked to be shot first, apparently hoping the younger girls would be let go, according to Leroy Zook, an Amish dairy farmer.
"Shoot me and leave the other ones loose," Marian has been quoted as saying, Zook said. His daughter, Emma Mae Zook, was the teacher who ran from the schoolhouse to a farm to summon police.
Amish builder David Lapp said Marian's younger sister Barbie, who is recovering from gunshot wounds, provided one of the accounts.







AP_Tacoda_AMS_DDC_addPair("SECTION", "NATIONAL")AP_Tacoda_AMS_DDC("http://te.ap.org/tte/blank.gif", "1.0")






















"Her sister remembers it, Barbie," Lapp said.
Trooper Linette Quinn said investigators have not conducted any interview that confirms the story but also said the investigation is incomplete.
Parents of two of the surviving victims have also told Leroy Zook that the children questioned Roberts after the adults left.
"They just asked him why he's doing this. He said he's angry with God," Zook said.

On Friday, more than 40 buggies splashed along country roads behind a funeral-home car, two mounted state troopers and a carriage with the body of 12-year-old Anna Mae Stoltzfus in a hand-sawn wooden coffin.
Four other girls killed during Monday's shootings, two of them sisters, were laid to rest Thursday at the same hilltop graveyard.
All roads into Nickel Mines village were again blocked, and the funeral procession, like those Thursday, passed the home of Charles Carl Roberts IV, the 32-year-old milk truck driver who took the 10 girls, ages 6 to 13, hostage, tied them up and shot them before killing himself.
One of the surviving girls was reported to be in grave condition. The county coroner said he had been told she was being taken off life support, but her location was not known Friday. The four other girls remain hospitalized.
Funerals for Fisher, 13, Naomi Rose Ebersol, 7, and sisters Mary Liz Miller, 8, and Lena Miller, 7, were held Thursday.
New details also emerged Friday about the scene outside the schoolhouse.
Lapp, the builder, said he was told there was a gunman at the school and arrived before police, stopping a few hundred yards from the school.
"It was a feeling of helplessness," Lapp said.
He saw all the boys in the school escape through a side door, jump a fence and then huddle together in a meadow. Lapp watched police storm the building and heard the gunfire.
"We just started shaking. There were a couple of us by then," he said.
There were about 15 boys, ages 6 to 13, in the school.
"They're still in shock. ... They have this glazed look in their eyes," woodworker Daniel Esh, whose three grandnephews were in the school, said earlier this week. "They'll heal, but it will affect them their whole lives."
Just hours after the shootings, the teacher vowed to return to her students. Though just 20, Emma Mae Zook had taught at the school for three years.
"She said, 'Yeah, I need those children now. I need them more than I ever did,'" Leroy Zook said.
A former teacher at the school said the funerals have been cathartic. Rebecca Petersheim, 29, of Georgetown, attended three funerals over the last two days, one in a woodworking shop and the third in a home.
"I just feel upheld by the prayers of others," she said.
Despite their outward stoicism, the families of the slain girls and the children who survived the schoolhouse siege will endure the same deep grief as would anyone outside their insular, 19th-century world, experts said.
"(Outsiders) think these people don't embrace each other, they don't cry. That's not true," said Jonas Beiler, a counselor who was raised Amish and has visited with some of the victims' families this week.
Beiler, 59, and his wife, Anne, who founded the Auntie Anne's Inc. pretzel chain, lost an 18-month-old daughter to a farm accident years ago, a tragedy he says nearly destroyed them. They now use some of their fortune to fund a counseling center in nearby Paradise.
"You never get done wondering how things might have been had this not happened, especially when children are involved," Beiler said. "Years later, it's not deep grief. But it hangs there."
Richard J. Gelles, a childhood violence expert and a University of Pennsylvania dean, said the importance of forgiveness in Amish culture should help survivors heal.
"Nobody has to accept that behavior. But forgiveness is a whole lot easier than seeking revenge," he said.
Many Amish have embraced the gunman's wife, Marie Roberts, and their three young children.
Lloyd Welk, Marie Roberts' grandfather, waited outside for the last funeral procession as a steady rain tapered to a slight drizzle late Friday morning.
Welk said 16 members of the Roberts family, including Marie Roberts and her three children, had a meal together Thursday night. There was a special prayer beforehand for the victims, he said.
"I think she's holding up real good," Welk said. She expects to move back into her home and put her children back in school, he said.


AP Photo/MATT ROURKE









*AP VIDEO*

Fifth Amish Girl Buried After School Shooting

*Amish schoolgirl hoped to spare others*

*Amish reluctantly accept donations* 
*Urban schools improving security* 
*'Innocence is gone' at Pa. Amish school* 
*Amish schools not likely to modernize* 
*Outside world crashes in on Pa. Amish* 
*Text of Roberts' suicide note* 
*Pa. Amish school shooting timeline* *Pa. gunman showed few signs of trouble*

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Associated Press writer Maryclaire Dale contributed to this report from Philadelphia.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.


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