About Nickel Mines, Lancaster County PA!
Until October 2, 2006 when a gunman entered an Amish School in the Nickel
Mines area, gunning down female students and killing himself, Nickel Mines
was a small hamlet in Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania that was
a quiet oasis, seldom noticed by the general public.
The nickel mines were worked for a deposit of sulfide ore, predominantly
millerite. Originally the mines were supposed to yield copper, but this was
not successful. In an effort to mine copper, the Gap Mining Company in 1852
discovered that the iron sulfide was actually nickel. In 1862 the
unprofitable mines were sold and betwen 1862 and 1893 accounted for 25% of
the world production in some years, closing in 1893 as a result of Canadian
competition.
The shooter, Charles Carl Roberts IV, a milk truck driver, armed with
weapons, entered an Amish one room school where approximately 27 students
were in attendance and ordered all male students and several adults to
leave. Ten girls, ages 6 to 13, remained. He lined them up and tied their
legs. The teacher escaped and went to a nearby home to call 911.
Negotiations failed and the police stormed the school after the gunman threatened
to shoot the girls, which he methodically did. Two girls and the shooter
died at the scene; one on the way to the hospital. Two girls died overnight
in hospitals and five remained in hospitals in critical or serious condition for some time.
The Amish community banded together to support the families and maintain
a watch at the hospitals. The shooter, 32, father of three, had no previous
criminal record. Suicide notes mentioned incidents that happened twenty years ago, apparently not related to the Amish. Local media highlighted stories about how the Amish families reached out with forgiveness to the family of the shooter. National and international media swarmed over the area for several weeks.
The Amish community tore down the old school building and built a new one.
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