Trooper At Amish Shooting Urges For Better Equipment

Thursday, August 23rd 2007, 7:38 am

By: News On 6

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) _ Police couldn't force their way into a barricaded Amish schoolhouse until 2 1/2 minutes after a gunman began shooting 10 girls inside, according to newly released details about the siege.

The killings last year and the Virginia Tech massacre demonstrate that police dealing with barricaded gunmen need better training and equipment, such as battering rams, said state police Sgt. Douglas Burig, who was in command at the West Nickel Mines Amish School standoff.

Schoolhouse gunman Charles C. Roberts IV acted so suddenly _ shooting his 10 victims in about eight seconds and killing five _ that even quick entry into the building might not have prevented the tragedy, said Burig, who carried two of the victims out of the school.

``It just highlights the need for equipment like this (to be) available for the first responders,'' Burig said. ``Ultimately it would not have made a difference in this incident, but perhaps it will in a future incident.''

Pennsylvania state troopers who were at the schoolhouse have said little publicly about the Oct. 2 shootings. But in talks to police agencies across the country, Burig and other state police officials have shared what they learned in hopes of helping other officers.

In an interview earlier this month with KTLO Radio in Mountain Home, Ark., where he was attending a conference, Burig said police tactical units have the tools to handle a barricaded hostage taker. But sometimes it falls to the first officers at the scene to handle the scenario.

Roberts, a 32-year-old father of three who worked as a milk truck driver, apparently planned to sexually assault the children. He lined up the 10 girls before the blackboard and tied their feet.

After insisting that police back off, he systematically shot them at close range.

``When he shot the girls, he shot them a total of 13 times and he did that in about eight seconds,'' Burig said in a portion of the radio interview that wasn't broadcast. ``These doors were heavily barricaded from the inside with two-by-fours, with flex ties, with furniture. It took the troopers about 2 1/2 minutes to fight through the barricades.''

Police used shields, rifle butts and batons to beat through the doors and windows. Roberts shot himself fatally in the head as the first troopers entered.

``Those troopers assaulted the school without any thought of their own safety,'' Burig told KTLO. ``They were shot at but they continued to move toward the school, they dove through windows and ripped off doors while being shot at and they saved the lives of five of the 10 girls that were inside there.

``It's something I'll never personally forget, and their bravery's directly responsible for why five of those girls are alive today.''

Three of the survivors are recovering well, but a fourth may need additional surgery for a shoulder wound, said Dr. Holmes Morton, a physician at the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg who is familiar with their conditions. The most seriously injured girl remains in what doctors fear will be a permanent vegetative state, he said.

The investigation remains open, and just last week police returned some clothing to victims' families. But Burig said no additional information has surfaced that might explain Roberts' actions.

In suicide notes and brief phone conversations on the day of the shooting, Roberts expressed anger over the memory of having molested two very young female relatives two decades earlier. Investigators later tracked down the girls, who had no memory of it.

Roberts also expressed pain over the 1997 death of a newborn daughter, Elise. He was buried beside her in a grave that, nearly a year later, remains unmarked.

``We certainly believe that's part of the motive,'' Burig told the AP.

Roberts' widow, Marie, remarried in May and moved several miles away. Roberts' father, a former police officer, participated in the wedding ceremony, said Terry L. Blessing, the minister who performed it.

``From all indications as I observed her, she was doing quite well,'' Blessing said.

Neither the Amish nor the surrounding community plan to mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting. A group called the Nickel Mines Accountability Committee has collected about $4.3 million for the victims and is working on setting up a trust fund to disburse the proceeds.

A Pennsylvania State Police spokeswoman said the department is considering whether to purchase additional anti-barricade equipment and how training might be improved.

But such incidents are rare and focusing on them might not be an efficient use of resources, said Patrick Judge, executive director of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training.

``As far as having specialized training, you know, it certainly would be handy,'' he said. ``But those are so isolated incidents and they're so unusual that you could train the officer, but you would have to train him on a continuous basis to keep the skills up.''