Just In: Amish school shooting

Reports now are that three are dead, with several more wounded.

We can’t rule out, at the moment, that he may have been raised Amish but left the community.

I hadn’t seen that. I guess Marilyn Manson and Grand Theft Auto aren’t off the hook quite yet.

That area is about as Little House on the Prarie as you can get. How someone could enter that postcard one-room school house and…well…it has been said.

Depressing. Lancaster County (not Lancaster proper) is just about my favorite spot in the NE ::sigh::

Revenge for something that happened 20 years ago? How are those kids responsible for that?

There are times I truly hope there is a Hell for people like this, and a Paradise awaiting the children.

Any Amish dopers checking in?

We can’t totally rule it out, but the name makes it extremely unlikely. Most Amish in Lancaster County share just a handful of last names, and Roberts is not one of them. He might, of course, have changed his name, but his name is consistently given as ending in “IV”.

The details coming in are about as horrible as they get… bound their feet, shot execution style. Brace yourselves for the number of deceased to increase.

It (NYTimes) says he’s not Amish but chose the school because security would be lax.

Not sure how anyone, especially a husband and father, could scare up and commit such a despicable crime.

BBC reports the guy left a suicide note for his wife and kids, wasn’t Amish, sent the boys out of the class, tied the girls’ feet together, shot 10 of them, 7 in the arm and 3 in the head, execution-style, the latter of whom died, then shot himself.

I heard he let the pregnant women and women with infants leave. What was his beef with the girls? And no matter what his reasons for revenge I can’t imagine those girls had anything to do with an incident 12 years ago.

I know NurseCarmen is going to hell but do I have to join him for laughing at that comment? :frowning:

20 years ago, even.

Sorry. But yes. Yes you do. I could use the company.

<SLAPS NurseCarmen with Wet Bearded Trout>

Okay then, I’ll bring the marshmallows.

I would be very suprised if this were to happen. But then, it’s been a surprising day. :frowning:

Let’s see, Amish town called Paradise, 27 dead…

This is apparently the work of the world’s most twisted “Weird Al” Yankovic fan.

Oh, wait…as it was already pointed out, three people were killed, not 27.
That’s still pretty freaky, though.

Sadly, the death toll seems to be up to 5 now, with one still in critcial condition. Apparently, the suicidal gunman was pissed off over something that happened 20 years ago, so he decided to take it out on some children who weren’t even alive then. I just can’t understand this. My heart goes out to the families of the children, and also to his wife and kids. Whatever happened to him all that long time ago, how could he do this to his children? They will have to live their lives with the knowledge that their father was a murderer.

Y’know, the authorities will probably seek to keep the content of the notes and final communications confidential, for the sake of the investigation and to avoid rubbing salt in the wound for the survivors, but that will only fuel the speculation of what in the world could have possiby happened 20 years ago, when this Dingdong was 12, and what was the thought process about said event that led him to the brilliant conclusion that this was the way out. Then again, we really don’t need that information. Like all murder-suicides, the Bastard shot people in the wrong order…

CNN says now that in his call to his wife, he says he molested minors 20 years ago, and gave this as his reason for his actions. I don’t get it. Where’s the revenge?