Roberts brought with him supplies necessary for a lengthy siege, including
three guns, a stun gun, two knives, a pile of wood and a bag with 600 rounds of
ammunition, police said. He also had a change of clothing, toilet paper, bolts
and hardware and rolls of clear tape.
He released about 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three women with infants,
barred the doors with desks and wood and secured them with nails, bolts and
flexible plastic ties. He then made the girls line up along a blackboard and
tied their feet together.
The teacher and another adult fled to a nearby farmhouse, and authorities
were called at about 10:30 a.m. Miller said Roberts apparently called his wife
from a cell phone at around 11 a.m., saying he was taking revenge for an old
grudge. Miller declined to say what the grudge could have been.
"It seems as though he wanted to attack young, female victims," Miller said.
Miller told NBC's "Today" that Roberts lost a daughter "approximately three
years ago" and that that may have been a factor in the shooting.
He said a teacher had to run to a farm house to call police because there
wasn't one at the school, in keeping with Amish custom.
Parents refused to fly in planes - again in keeping with Amish
tradition - and had to be driven to see their children at hospitals, Miller
told "Today." Some were taken to the wrong hospitals in the confusion, Miller
said.
From the suicide notes and telephone calls, it was clear Roberts was "angry
at life, he was angry at God," and co-workers said his mood had darkened in
recent days, Miller said.
In a statement released to reporters, the gunman's wife, Marie Roberts,
called her husband "loving, supportive and thoughtful."
"He was an
exceptional father," she said. "He took the kids to soccer practice and games,
played ball in the backyard and took our 7-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
innocence and lives that were lost today," she said. "Above all, please pray for
the families who lost children and please pray too for our family and children."
The attack bore similarities to a deadly school shooting last week in Bailey,
Colo., but Miller said he believed the Pennsylvania attack was not a copycat
crime. "I really believe this was about this individual and what was going on
inside his head," he said.
On Friday, a school principal was shot to death in Cazenovia, Wis. A
15-year-old student, described as upset over a reprimand, was charged with
murder.
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