Published: October 02, 2006 03:14 pm      

Gunman kills 3 at Amish school, then self

NICKEL MINES, Pa. — An armed man walked into an Amish school today, sent the boys outside and opened fire on the girls, killing three of them, authorities said.

The gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, a truck driver from the town of Bart, apparently killed himself, state police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said.

Three children were found dead at the scene and seven others were taken to hospitals, Miller said.

Roberts walked into the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School with a shotgun and an automatic handgun and barricaded himself inside after releasing about 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three women with infants, Miller said. The girls were lined up along a blackboard and their feet were bound, he said.

A teacher called police around 10:30 a.m. and reported that a gunman was holding students hostage.

Roberts apparently called his wife from a cell phone at around 11 a.m., saying he was “acting out in revenge for something that happened 20 years ago,” Miller said. “It seems as though he wanted to attack young, female victims.”

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 in the building. When they got inside, they found him dead.

The school had about 25 to 30 students, ages six to 13, Miller said.

Lancaster County Coroner G. Gary Kirchner told The Associated Press early this afternoon that six people were killed. He later said he wasn’t sure of the number.

Two hours after the shooting, about three dozen people in traditional Amish clothing, hats and bonnets stood near the small school building speaking to one another, several young people and authorities.

The school is among farmlands just outside Nickel Mines, a tiny village about 55 miles west of Philadelphia.