Monday, October 02, 2006

Mass Murder in Amish Country

The death toll from a murderous rampage at a one-room schoolhouse in the middle of Pennsylvania Dutch country is now six. Via MSNBC:
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. Two young students were killed, along with a female teacher’s aide who was slightly older than the students, state police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller 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 gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 32-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 long-ago hurt 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.
Quite a few folks are speculating whether this is a copycat incident, considering that there were two other school shootings within the past two weeks. Who knows. It could simply be a statistical blip, or maybe someone who was already predisposed to carrying out this attack saw that others had acted and therefore followed suit.

The investigations continue, and my thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost their loved ones at such a tender young age.

No comments: