Charles Carl Roberts
| West Nickel Mines School shooting | |
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Charles Carl Roberts mugshot
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| Location | Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Date | October 2, 2006 c. 10:25 a.m. – c. 11:07 a.m. |
| Target | Female students at West Nickel Mines School |
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Attack type
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School shooting, hostage taking, murder–suicide, mass murder |
| Weapons | |
| Deaths | 6 (including the perpetrator) |
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Non-fatal injuries
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5 |
| Perpetrator | Charles Carl Roberts IV |
Coordinates: 39°57′37″N 76°05′04″W / 39.96021°N 76.084393°W
On October 2, 2006, a shooting occurred at the West Nickel Mines School, an Amish one-room schoolhouse in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, a village in Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV took hostages and shot eight out of ten girls (aged 6–13), killing five, before committing suicide in the schoolhouse. The emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation in the response of the Amish community was widely discussed in the national media. The West Nickel Mines School was torn down, and a new one-room schoolhouse, the New Hope School, was built at another location.
Roberts backed a pickup truck up to the front of the Amish schoolhouse and entered the school at approximately 10:25 a.m. EDT, shortly after the children had returned from recess. He asked the teacher, Emma Mae Zook, and the students if they had seen a missing clevis pin on the road. Survivors said that Roberts was mumbling his words and was not making direct eye contact. After the occupants of the classroom denied seeing a clevis pin, Roberts walked out to his truck and reappeared in the classroom holding a Springfield XD 9mm handgun. He ordered the boys to help him carry items into the classroom from the back of his pickup. Zook and her mother, who was visiting the schoolhouse, took this opportunity to escape the school and ran toward a nearby farm to get help. Roberts saw them leave, and ordered one of the boys to stop them, threatening to shoot everyone if the women got away.
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