Amish school assassin and his 20-year grudge against girls

Police believe Charles Roberts deliberately selected girls for execution because of a slight he suffered at the age of 12. The milk tank driver killed himself after lining up 11 girls against a blackboard and shooting them one by one with a 9mm pistol which he took time to reload.

The remaining seven children are critically injured after the shootings, which brought death to the pacifist community in rural Pennsylvania.

The toll from America's third deadly school shooting in less than a week rose twice within a matter of hours today with the deaths of a nine-year-old girl at Christiana Hospital in Delaware and a seven-year-old girl at Penn State Children's Hospital in Hershey.

State police commissioner Jeffrey Miller said Roberts, 32, was "acting out in revenge for something which happened 20 years ago".

He added: "We're still looking into the motive. It's clear that he did a great of planning and intended to harm these kids and harm himself.

The death of Roberts's baby daughter in 1997 may also have played a part, Mr Miller said.

Roberts, who was not Amish, burst into the one-room Georgetown Amish school in Bart Township, about 55 miles from Philadelphia, armed with an arsenal of guns. He sent 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three women with babies outside.

He barricaded the doors with two-by-four pieces of wood and piled up desks against the doors.

A teacher and another adult at the school fled to a farmhouse nearby and raised the alarm.

The terrified girls, some as young as six, were lined up along the blackboard, their feet bound with wire and plastic ties before being shot at close range.

Three girls were killed instantly, while a fourth died several hours later in hospital. Most of the other girls were shot in the back of the head.

One of those who died is believed to have been a teacher's aide.

Roberts killed himself as police stormed the building.

At least three of the survivors are said to be fighting for their lives. Mr Miller said: "It would be a miracle if we were somehow able to have no further loss of life."

Today Roberts's widow, Marie, said she could not understand why her husband had carried out the killings.

She said: "The man that did this today was not the Charlie I've been married to for almost 10 years. He was loving, supportive, thoughtful, all the things you would want and more.

"He was an excellent father. He took our kids to soccer practice and games, played ball in the backyard and took our seven-year-old daughter shopping.

"He never said no when I asked him to change a diaper. Our hearts are broken, our lives are shattered and we grieve for the lives of the innocent children lost today."

The gunman, who was not Amish, used to collect milk from the local farms.

Earlier he had walked two of his three young children to a bus stop, gave them a hug and told them "that he loved them," according to one distraught witness.

His wife found several suicide notes after he had left for work and tried to call her husband.

Roberts himself then called his wife from the school and "told her he wasn't coming home," Mr Miller said. Roberts told her that "he couldn't go on anymore" and that "he was getting revenge for something that happened 20 years ago," the officer added.

He said: "He was angry with life and was angry at God." The killings stunned America where there have been two other fatal school shootings in under a week.

Mr Miller said that Roberts had been scheduled to take a random drug test yesterday but police do not know if that may have played in the attack.

The police chief said Roberts had chosen the Amish school as it was close to his home, had no security and there were girls in the class.

The Amish are devout Christians who live in farming communities isolated from the modern world and shun modern technology such as televisions, cars and electricity.

The Hollywood film Witness, starring Harrison Ford as a detective who hides out in their community, introduced the closed society to a wider audience.

The Bush administration on Monday called for a school violence summit to be held next week with education and law enforcement officials to discuss possible federal action to help communities prevent violence and deal with its aftermath.

A six-year-old girl remained in critical condition and a 13-year-old girl was in serious condition at Penn State Children's Hospital, spokeswoman Buehler Stranges said. She said the names of the children were not being released. Three girls, ages 8, 10 and 12, were flown to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where they were out of surgery but remained in critical condition, spokeswoman Peggy Flynn said.

It emerged that parents had refused to fly in planes - again in keeping with Amish tradition - and had to be driven to see their children at hospitals, state police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller told "Today." Some were taken to the wrong hospitals in the confusion, he said.

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