On October 2, 2006, a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania became the site of a targeted and deeply disturbing shooting. The gunman, 32-year-old Charles Carl Roberts IV, was a local milk truck driver and father of three who had no connection to the school or its students. Just after 10:00 a.m., Roberts entered the West Nickel Mines School armed with a 9mm handgun, a shotgun, a rifle, and a backpack filled with ammunition, chains, and other supplies.
He released the adult women and all but ten young girls, whom he forced to line up against the blackboard. He barricaded the doors and prepared for a drawn-out siege. As police arrived on the scene and attempted to negotiate, Roberts began shooting the girls execution-style. Five were killed instantly or died later from their wounds. The remaining five were critically injured. Roberts then turned the gun on himself and died by suicide as police breached the building.
Investigators discovered suicide notes and personal writings in which Roberts expressed rage and guilt over the death of his infant daughter years earlier. He also alluded to unresolved fantasies of harming young girls, including references to past molestation that were never substantiated. The attack appeared to be premeditated and sexually motivated, though Roberts did not physically assault any of the victims.
The Amish community responded with a level of forgiveness that stunned the nation. Community members visited Roberts’s family to express their sympathy, attended his funeral, and extended support to his widow and children. Their response became a defining aspect of the tragedy, often overshadowing the brutality of the act itself.
The Nickel Mines shooting was a rare instance of mass violence in an ultra-traditional and insular community. It forced a quiet population into the national spotlight and exposed the devastating reach of private rage. For the victims’ families, forgiveness did not mean forgetting. The grief, though carried with dignity, remains permanent.
Articles:
Gunman kills five students at Amish school
Amish school gunman left note of despair; death toll 5
Amish School Shooter’s Widow, Marie Monville, Speaks Out
Police: School killer told wife he molested family members
A Decade After Amish School Shooting, Gunman’s Mother Talks Of Forgiveness
Additional Links:
Leave a Comment