By Seamus McGraw
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| Police car near the school |
(Continued)
There is, authorities say, no evidence that Roberts had specifically targeted the Amish, a close knit and reserved religious sect that eschews virtually all modern conveniences, rejecting even buttons on their clothing as too fancy. Instead, authorities have said, the gunman, who claimed in a rambling suicide manifesto that left behind that he was angry at God over the death several years ago of one of his children, a newborn daughter named Elise who died in 1997, may simply have targeted the school because it was convenient to his home. If that's true, it would have been nothing more than a tragic coincidence that his victims were all the children of devout followers of the same God he claimed to have despised.
Police say the gunman allowed the roughly fifteen boys who attended the school to leave, and also allowed two young teacher's aides, both of whom had infants at their sides, to leave as well, before he lined the girls up in front of the school's blackboard, and bound their feet.
In the confusion, authorities said, the teacher also slipped out of the one room schoolhouse, and made her way to a nearby farm where she called police. In the meantime, Roberts apparently spoke by telephone with his wife, Marie, and told her that he would not be coming home. He reportedly instructed her to read three suicide notes he had left for their children, though authorities have described the notes and rambling and barely coherent and say they shed no light on Roberts' motive.
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| Roberts with his wife |
State Police units, both investigators and uniformed officers, arrived on the scene within minutes, authorities said. Within seconds, Roberts telephoned 911 and told an operator that if the state police did not withdraw immediately he would begin executing his hostages.
Before police could even process his demand, authorities said, Roberts began shooting. According to authorities, he moved down the line of bound girls and shot them execution style before shooting himself. Three of the girls were pronounced dead at the scene. One of them died in the arms of a state trooper who had tried to rescue the children. Two other girls died hours later in the hospital and six were wounded, some critically.
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| A helicopter takes off from a field next to the schoolhouse as investigators try to sort out what happened |
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