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Turkish Passenger Plane Hijacked, Lands in Italy; News Conference on Amish School Shooting
Aired October 03, 2006 - 11:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Quickly want to mention to you again the information just coming in to us here at CNN. CNN has confirmed that a Turkish plane was hijacked over Greek air space. It was traveling from Tirana, Albania, to Istanbul, Turkey.
A hundred seven people on board. That hijacking signal was sent out, believably by the pilot. We are trying to find out what the situation is now.
We have learned that the plane did land in Brindisi, Italy. Not sure of the situation there on the ground. We will continue to monitor that as we move forward today.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And Heidi, we are also awaiting a news conference on the deadly school shooting in Amish country. As we wait for that to get under way, an update on what we know right now.
A fifth victim has died as the people of this quiet community come together in grief. Police are revealing new details about the man they say opened fire on a group of schoolgirls yesterday and then shot himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMM. JEFFREY MILLER, PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE: It's very clear to us as the investigation unfolds that he had planned this in advance at least two or three days in advance. And he had certain supplies that he already had, he had other things that he purchased.
But make no mistake about it, he planned on a siege at this school. And he had enough equipment and enough ammunition and weapons to hunker down in that position for a lengthy period of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And once again, at any moment now we'll hear more about the investigation from the man you just saw a moment ago, the state police commissioner, Jeffrey Miller. He's holding a news conference, and of course we will bring that to you live.
COLLINS: Our Jason Carroll is following this story. He is joining us now live from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
And Jason, we are waiting for the police commissioner to come out and address the press, and hopefully tell us a little bit more about the entire situation, and specifically maybe more details about a motive from this shooter.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, that's what I think a lot of people are waiting for. And police seemed to indicate a little earlier on this morning that perhaps they would be able to give us a little bit more information about that, Heidi.
As you know, Charles Roberts did leave behind several notes. He left behind a note to his wife, to his three children. We don't know what -- you know, the content of what was written in those notes, but police seemed to indicate that perhaps after they had a chance to look through them, to review them, that perhaps there would be some information, some clue as to the motive.
We do know at this point that he held a 20-year grudge. A grudge that had something to do with young girls. He wanted to exact his revenge against young girls. And this was the place that he decided to do it.
He did it yesterday at that one-room schoolhouse filled with Amish children. He told the young boys to leave. He told many of the young girls that they had to stay.
He would line them up against the chalkboard. And then in a gruesome way, shot many of them at point blank range.
You heard a little earlier about how he came armed, he came prepared for this. When he showed up, he had a semiautomatic handgun. He had a shotgun, he had a stun gun. He came with a change of clothes.
So, he came heavily armed. And, in fact, at one point he backed up his truck, because as you know he was a truck driver -- backed up his truck against the schoolhouse. That way preventing officers when they showed up to prevent them from getting inside.
He also used plastic sort of handcuffs in order to seal the doors. He used wooden planks to nail...
COLLINS: Jason -- Jason, forgive me, I'm going to have to interrupt you.
We want to get straight to this press conference. It looks like it has begun.
Let's listen in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We pray for your continued prayers, for peace and comfort and healing while you are a part of our local town.
Our community truly has been hurt. Even so, we still are very close community.
We know our English and Amish neighbors. Many people know one another very well, and we truly share one another's pain and grief.
This even will be a part of our history. In time though, we will be remembered more for how we picked up one another's pieces and continued together, caring for one another.
Again, we ask for your continued prayers, for peace, for healing, and for forgiveness.
I would like to present our governor, Ed Rendell.
GOV. ED RENDELL (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Good morning.
Let me begin by expressing on behalf of 12.4 million Pennsylvanians our deepest sympathy to the families of the children and to the entire Amish community. In respect for the tremendous loss that this community has suffered, state flags in Harrisburg and throughout Lancaster County will fly at half mast until the funerals.
I want to also commend local responders, the Bart Township Fire Department, and particularly the Pennsylvania State Police for their quick response to this tragedy and for doing all that they could, and for the things they've done after the shooting. The state police have taken extraordinary care of the families.
It's been an extraordinary effort on their part. And Colonel Miller was a great representative of the government of Pennsylvania and the state police during the aftermath of all of this tragedy.
Many people have asked us what could be done. And it's very complex question.
Random acts of violence are always very, very difficult to prevent or to deal with. People have asked is there anything the Department of Education could do to work with schools to develop some sort of protocol. Let me begin by reminding everyone that the school in question here was a private school.
But we do have a good protocol, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, in working with local schools and school districts for a response to homeland security emergencies. And I've directed the PDE to look and work with the state police to see if there's any protocol or any guide that we can give to our school districts to deal with a similar circumstance.
I ask all Pennsylvanians to keep the families and the victims in their prayers, and to keep this fine community in their prayers as well.
And now I'm going to turn it over to Colonel Miller.
MILLER: Thank you. Good afternoon.
It's my intention today to try to provide you with some detailed information as a result of our investigative efforts that commenced yesterday and in through the overnight period and into today. And at the conclusion of the information I provide to you, then we'll take questions. If you can just raise your hand, we'll try to take those questions for you -- from you.
This is the timeline of suspect Roberts as we have -- as we've been able to outline in interview his wife and putting the pieces of this together.
Yesterday, October 2nd, at 03:00 hours, 3:00 in the morning, Roberts is home from work after he finishes his milk run, picking up milk from Amish farms.
Between 7:30 and 7:45, Roberts and his wife are up with their children getting them ready for school, which is a normal activity, nothing out of the ordinary.
At 8:45, Roberts walks his children to the school bus stop.
At 9:00, his wife leaves the house before Roberts, and she was going to a prayer group. Roberts was to leave for a random drug test as required by his employer for he's a CDO (ph) licensed driver in Pennsylvania. His wife picked up a friend, and they attended a church prayer group at the Ocarera Presbyterian Church (ph).
At 9:15, his wife arrived at the Presbyterian church in Ocarera.
At 10:30, she left the church with her friend.
At 10:45, she dropped her friend off.
Between 10:45 and 10:50, she tried to call Roberts from their home phone. Roberts had taken his wife's cell phone with him.
At 10:50 hours, Roberts calls his wife and would not tell her where he is. Roberts stated to his wife, "I am not coming home. The police are here." Then he states, "I molested some minor family members," family members that were 3 and 4 years old 20 years ago.
It's unclear from his wife, but Roberts states to his wife that he's getting revenge for something that occurred in his life. Roberts then tells his wife where the suicide notes are located within the residence, and that's the last conversation Roberts has with his wife.
His wife finds the suicide notes. She read some of them, and then she called her mother and then called 911.
This 911 call was forwarded to the state police dispatch center in Harrisburg. The dispatch center has her on hold and she hears the sirens in the background.
Roberts' wife stated to us that Roberts took the loss of their child Elyse (ph) very hard. Elyse was a child born prematurely nine years ago. We were able to confirm that through the records of the county. Nine years ago, and she lived for approximately 20 minutes. And she was buried at a church close by where the family resides.
Additional evidence recovered and found at the Amish school.
The side door was barricaded with a two by four and a foosball table pushed in front of the door. Plastic cable ties secured the two by four to the door.
The front door of the school was barricaded in that the right side was locked with a slide bolt and the left side door with the panic bar had a two by six slid down to block the panic bar from operation. Then there were desks piled up in front of the door.
We found three receipts that indicate that Roberts made a purchase of items from a local hardware store. He made one purchase on September 26th, which was last Tuesday, and that purchase consisted of cable zip ties that he purchased from the hardware store.
And he made two purchases yesterday, October 2nd, Monday. The receipts were not itemized, but we were able to determine that he entered the store and he bought items at 9:14 a.m., and he reentered the store at 9:16 a.m.
We believe he purchased eyebolts, two packs of the zip ties, and assorted hardware which was contained within boxes. The Saber stun gun was purchased at Village Arms in Gap, Pennsylvania.
Just a note, the stun gun is a prohibitive offensive weapon under the Pennsylvania Crimes Code. It's a misdemeanor in the first degree. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting us with tracing the rifles, handgun, and the purchase of the stun gun.
On the bottom of one of the boxes that Roberts brought into the school after we photographed everything at the scene and we began to remove the contents of all the items that he had put in the school, we discovered a bag of nails, chains, small clamps, and two tubes of KY Jelly. One of the two by four pieces of wood had 10 large eye hooks in the boards, based (ph) approximately 10 inches apart.
It's important to note that we had 10 victims at that time that were in the school.
Additional information that we have on Roberts, there was no indication from the family or a coworker that Roberts was going to commit this crime. But we did interview his brother-in-law, who is also a coworker, and he stated that Roberts was standoffish and would not interact as usual in the past couple of days leading up to the weekend before the crime occurred. The interaction that Roberts had with his family the weekend preceding this past Monday the 2nd was very relaxed.
Roberts would normally work from 6:00 p.m. until 3:00 a.m., which was basically the shift he worked leading up to the day in question. He would normally park his company's commercial tanker truck in the parking lot of Nickel Mine Auction during the week and on the weekend.
He would park it -- I'm sorry -- and on the weekend he would park it at his residence. So normally during the week he would park it at the Nickel Mine auction. He would leave his personal vehicle in the parking lot while he went out and did his milk run.
OK. As to the statement, as for Roberts making statements about molesting family members, from the interviews by the Pennsylvania State Police, both sides of Roberts' family were interviewed. His parents, his wife, they had no knowledge of any molestation by Roberts affecting any family member or anyone else. And this was a complete surprise to them.
There were two minor family members of Roberts that are alleged to have been molested as of this time. But this is solely based on the statement from Roberts. We have no other confirmation of that at this time.
We believe these minor relatives of Roberts -- and this is alleged to have occurred 20 years ago -- were between 3 and 5 years old. It's unknown what type of molestation, whether it was fondle or inappropriate touching, or sexual assault, or if anything occurred. We don't know.
We tried to confirm where there was ever a report made of such a crime. And we were not able to confirm that a report was ever made, and we have not been able to confirm that something actually occurred. But we know that he is making reference to this.
Roberts mentioned suicide, in his suicide note, that he was having dreams of molesting again. Some of the motive or reasons, again, we cannot tell with any degree of, like, 100 percent certainty what he was thinking. But we are trying to piece together from the information he left behind and the evidence we gathered a better picture of what was going through his mind.
As I stated before, nine years ago, Roberts and his wife had a baby Elyse who was born premature and died shortly after birth. She only lasted -- she only lived for 20 minutes after birth. And she was buried in a cemetery near their home.
Roberts was very upset and troubled by the loss of Elyse. According to his wife, it affected him greatly.
Roberts was angry with god for taking Elyse, as outlined in his suicide note, stating that it had changed his life forever and he was not the same since it happened. Roberts expressed hate towards himself and towards god.
Roberts states in the suicide note that he has another reason for his anger but he cannot discuss it, and it happened almost 20 years ago. Robert states in his suicide note that he has been having dreams for the past couple of years about doing what he did 20 years ago. And in the dreams, he wants to do those things again.
Additional evidence found in the school -- obviously I mentioned -- I mentioned previously the chain, clamps and two tubes of KY Jelly. The criminal investigation assessment that was done by Corporal Patrick Quigley of our troop (INAUDIBLE) Lancaster -- just to give you a little bit of insight into what we were able to glean putting together a survey of the scene and the evidence that was discovered, and the statements made by the suspect, and the information we gleaned from the suspect's family.
Roberts' behavior was organized, preplanned, it had forethought given to his actions. Roberts assembled a restraint system or kit. Purchases of the hardware materials were prior to the crime being committed. He had preplanned barricades for the school. Tools were bought to the school to secure and change the scene. Ten eyebolts were found with some of the wood fixtures, and we had 10 victims.
The age ranges selected by Roberts were ages 6 to 13. The older adult females were released and not perhaps part of this target range.
The ammunition, batteries, flashlight, multiple weapons, bucket, toilet paper and change of clothes are indicative of an individual preparing for standoff contingencies. The KY Jelly has no exact reason other than the potential for a sexual assault aid.
Roberts' actions were scripted, meaning they were preplanned. He had a mental script that he had already gone through in his mind and plans of what he was going to do until the time that the police arrived. Roberts became disorganized when the state police arrived on the scene, and his panicked behavior and shooting and moving around the school was indicative of that.
At this time I want to -- I want to talk a little bit about the victims. And again, our hearts and our prayers -- I echo the words of the governor -- our hearts and prayers go out to the many family members in this community that have been effected so greatly by the loss of life, innocent life that never should have happened. And all the men and women in the state police share in the grieving with the families of this community.
We have five victims that are currently being treated at the hospital. I'm not going to release their names, but I'll tell you their ages.
The ages are -- they're all female -- age 6, age 13, age 8, age 11, and age 8. Those are the five victims currently receiving medical treatment.
We had five victims die thus far as a result of this attack. And I'm going to give you their name and their age.
First victim, Naomi Rose Eversole, age 7. Second victim, Anna Mae Stoltzfus, age 12. Third victim, Marian Fisher, age 13. Fourth victim, Mary Liz Miller, age 8. Fifth victim, Lina Miller, age 7.
I want to speak just briefly to the notes that were left behind by the suspect.
As we stated I think previously he left a note for his wife. He left a note individually for each of his three children. And he left some materials, a note and a checklist of sorts in the -- in the milk truck that we searched.
So I'll start with really the only one of any consequence to what we are talking about here, which is potential understanding of a motive for this crime. It relates to his wife and the one we found in his truck.
The note that he left for his wife talks about the good memories together, the tragedy with Elyse. It focuses on his life being changed forever because of the tragedy involving the loss of Elyse, his hatred toward himself and his hatred towards god as a result of that event.
And he alludes to this other reason for this anger that he has, but he can't discuss it with her. And it happened 20 years ago.
Later in the note, he talks about having dreams for the last couple of years about what he did 20 years ago. And in those dreams, he says he wants to do those things again.
Now, his wife didn't know what he was talking about. It wasn't until she spoke to him when he was inside the school before the shooting started that he told her he had molested two minor relatives 20 years prior. And that was -- that was how she put all that together.
But neither his wife or any member of his family that we have spoken to has any knowledge of any -- any crime being committed. But again, this gives you a little bit of an insight into what he was thinking and doing.
In his vehicle, in his milk truck, there was a note found there and a checklist. On the note, there was reference made to the death of Elyse and the fact that she was buried here and why did this happen. And it talks about this being very painful, not seeing her grow up, things of that nature. And, you know, again, his anger in this situation.
There was also found in the work truck a checklist. And this list matches the evidence found and recovered in the school.
I'll just read the list -- the items that's in a notebook that he wrote down, and it appears he wrote these items into the notebook: tape, eyebolts -- and those are both checked off at this time -- tools, nails, wrenches, hose -- hose is checked off -- KY, bullets, guns, binoculars, ear plugs, batteries -- batteries is checked off -- flashlights, candle -- candle was checked off -- wood, and it looks -- it looks like tape.
Those items were found. That was the list that was found in his truck.
At this point, I think that's all of the specific information I have on the front end that I wanted to pass out. And I would open the floor for questions.
Please raise your hand.
Yes?
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
MILLER: Yes, they are.
(CROSSTALK) QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
MILLER: We have no -- there is no evidence that the victims were sexually assaulted in any way.
QUESTION: Did you -- excuse me -- did you interview the minors he said he had molested, the 3 and 5-year-old, in his family?
MILLER: The question is, did we interview -- first of all, there was no evidence of sexual assault of any of the victims in this crime? There was no evidence of sexual assault of the victims in this crime.
One could state that it's not outside the realm of possibility given everything we know now to date that it's possible that he had planned not only to dig in for a long siege, but when he released individuals -- and one thing I should also note that I forgot to note, and that is there was a young lady who -- a young 9-year-old girl who was able to get out.
If you remember, we had 15 males and 11 females. There was a -- there was a young lady that was able to escape, a 9-year-old, with her brother. So now he was left with 10 students.
That's how many eyebolts he had. He had wrapped them together. He had them by the board.
So we're not sure what his intent was, but obviously it raises a concern. I think the disruption of activities obviously caused -- caused things to change.
Now, to get back to your final question, which was, did -- did we interview? We made every attempt to contact members of the family that would have any specific knowledge about any particular offense that could have occurred. And to this point, we still have a couple more people we want to talk to. But to this point, no one has any knowledge of anything like this.
And it's possible that even if we're able to locate the people that is most likely, the individuals, extended family members that are most likely to be the potential victims here, because of their young age it's very possible that they may have no knowledge of this. But we are not finished with that yet.
QUESTION: Colonel...
MILLER: Yes?
QUESTION: ... understanding that hindsight is easy and that there's only one person responsible for this, are you examining the actions of your officers on the scene? I'm referring to the 10-second warning they got.
You indicated yesterday that the negotiator was trying to establish cell phone contact. Should they not have just cleared out immediately once they got that 10-second warning, or should they have stayed on the scene, as they did, trying to establish contact? MILLER: Oh, they absolutely should have stayed on the scene and tried to establish contact. I think two things were happening simultaneously.
Number one, the trooper that now had a cell phone number for the suspect was doing two things. We made the notification for going after the perimeter at the same time as the trooper, who is a trained negotiator, was trying to get this gentleman, the suspect, on the phone. Because we know if we can make that contact, we might be able to deescalate things before something happens.
People do make threats in these types of scenarios. Sometimes they follow through on them, sometimes they don't. Sometimes we're able to establish that contact.
So we were trying to simultaneously do two things. One, try to reach him. Two, try to prepare to breach the building if we have to.
And within a matter of seconds, the shots began to go and our people had to go in. He never answered the phone.
Yes, ma'am?
QUESTION: Can you talk a little bit about what he had the male victims doing when he first entered the school? I thought you talking about how they helped him...
MILLER: I never said that. That's been -- we're trying to confirm whether any of that happened. We're not certain.
At this point we know that there were a number of items that had to offload presumably from his pickup truck to get ginto the building. We know that he came in and talked to the students, he talked to the teacher.
At some point, he lined everybody up. He separated them by gender. And not too long after that he allowed the males to leave and the other people that we spoke about.
So now he was just down to the 10 female students. And he had already started, apparently, from what we were gathering, to bind their legs together and to put them up by the -- by the chalkboard.
QUESTION: Colonel, Martina Ellis (ph), with NBC News.
You talk about him leaving his milk truck at the auction house. Was the pickup truck there at the auction house? Did he just get from the milk truck to the auction house and then drove to the school?
MILLER: Well, no, because he went home from -- he would leave his car at the location. He would drop -- drop the milk truck off, get in his car and go home.
He went home. He got up and got the kids to school, and at 8:45 dropped them off at the bus stop. Then we're not sure. We're trying to figure out what he did. He obviously had two receipts that indicate 9:14 and 9:15 he was actually at the hardware store. But we don't know what he did between 9:16 and a little bit before 10:00 a.m., which is the time he arrived at the school.
QUESTION: Is your understanding that the pickup truck that had this variety of weapons and other things in it, was that at his home and he simply came home, left his car, then got into the pickup truck with all of these...
MILLER: We don't know if the pickup truck was at his home. Again, I think for him to leave -- if the truck was there, potentially for him to use to go to the appointment, that may be one thing. But for the truck to be there and fully loaded with all of these materials in full view of his wife and neighbors, et cetera, it probably wouldn't have been -- we don't know for sure on that right now. We're still looking into that on the truck.
QUESTION: Colonel, can you speak a little bit more please to the motive here, because you've talked about what he wrote in the notes, but why go ahead and just shoot these little girls in the school room? And anything else also that you know about Mr. Roberts' background?
MILLER: Well, Mr. Roberts was home-schooled his whole life. Mr. Roberts was somebody who was very handy with carpentry tools. He was very good at that, from what we understand.
As far as his motive, it's pretty clear to us based on the actions that he took, again, that he intended to go into this school. Now, we believe it had nothing to do with the Amish, but it had to do with this victim range, which was this -- this -- young female students ages 6 to 13.
And we believe that he did not intend to come out alive. But we're also concerned that he may have had an extended plan to be in there for a lengthy period of time.
And it's very possible -- we don't know for sure, but it's very possible that when he talks about doing the things and having dreams for the last two years about doing things that he did 20 years ago, if in fact it's true that he did do this molestation, that he perhaps planned with the kind of wood and eyebolts and flex cuffs and KY jelly and other things, it's very possible that he intended to victimize these children in many ways prior to executing them and killing himself.
QUESTION: And the arrival of the police may have interrupted that?
MILLER: Yes. Our assessment right now, as I tried to relay, was that he became disorganized when we arrived.
I think, again -- and I give credit to the Amish teacher, Ms. Zuk (ph), and I give credit to our troopers for responding as quickly as possible, because although we had a tremendous loss of life, you know, no one can say for sure how many lives may have been lost had that word not gone out and had we not been able to respond. In other words, if given a number of hours in there or whatever, who knows what would have happened and how many kids we would have lost.
QUESTION: Colonel, can you clarify about the eyebolts configuration and what inference you might be drawing from that?
MILLER: Well, again -- and I don't know for sure, but our investigators, as we look, one of the two by sixes had eyebolts connected close together, but they were -- there was like two sets, but they were like 10 inches apart.
So -- I mean, we had 10 victims. I mean, someone could be restraining, in a way, with their hands, with their back turned or whatever. I mean, I don't know for sure. But again, it's very odd that we would have all these other things. And that's why we were trying to run that down yesterday, because we had other things to look at.
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: You've just talked about this, but do you have any better information today or understanding as to why that...
MILLER: Again, we don't, other than it's target of opportunity. He was familiar with it, it was close by his home. I'm sure he felt comfortable that he could get into that location and probably fortify it in a way. I mean, obviously, he made -- he made -- we know he was planning at least going back probably to the 26th. So he was planning about six days in advance of this as to what he would do.
I mean, he had a very organized plan laid out. So, you know, obviously, we think he felt comfortable enough -- that's the assumption we're making -- that he could fortify the inside of this school so that he would have enough time to accomplish whatever his objectives were.
QUESTION: And he had the target group there?
MILLER: And he had the target group there, yes.
QUESTION: Colonel, can you go over exactly what you knew about what he did, once he got into the school, in terms of lining people up and letting them go. What happened to the people who escaped? Where did they go? How did this young 9-year-old lady manage to get out with her brother even though...
MILLER: It's unclear as to whether she just slipped out with her brother. And, again, obviously, because of the trauma that everyone's gone through, we haven't been able to talk to every living child that's been involved in this heinous crime. So we're trying to do that. But from what we can piece together so far, we're not sure if she just slipped out. It seems like she got away when her brother got away. And the others were dismissed and allowed to leave. And I think...
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) two lines?
MILLER: He had them split up by gender, from what we understand. And then he got the adults out of there and he got the males out of there. And one of the females somehow got out. And whether that was on purpose or because he wanted a certain number or whether she just slipped out, I can't say for sure.
Yes, ma'am?
QUESTION: Did he get the names of the girls that he -- or female relatives that he allegedly assaulted? I mean, obviously not been released. But did he tell his wife the names of the...
MILLER: Yes.
QUESTION: He did? And have you tracked down those female relatives?
MILLER: We haven't tracked everyone down yet, no.
QUESTION: Colonel, can you talk us to about the response of the state police. You got the call at 10:36, first troopers arrived at 10:45. Obviously, with the rural nature of this location from Troop J, not all of the troopers could make it in nine minutes. Could you talk about who was here, how many were here, at what time and when all ten arrived, if you would, please?
MILLER: From what I understand -- and we had -- I think we had two troopers on the scene right away, and very shortly thereafter, within a matter of seconds, minutes, eight more arrived. And that's a combination of criminal investigators, patrol troopers, anybody in the area. Because the call we received was that there was a gunman inside a school with a number of student hostages.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) or oddities that came up?
MILLER: There was absolutely nothing odd that his wife or family picked up on. In other words -- in fact, the two days, the weekend prior to Monday, they were -- I mean, he was playing with the kids. He was relaxed. He seemed to be just absolutely fine.
QUESTION: Colonel, among the other things that you already mentioned, I understand there was also some black powder found on the site? Is there an indication he was planning an explosion of some sort?
MILLER: Again, that's very possible. We don't know for sure. He obviously had that in his chute bag. He had the powder, he had the other devices. So we're not sure what he was planning to do with that, but obviously he came with vast array of weaponry.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: We -- you touched on this briefly last night (INAUDIBLE). But what do you think parents should be telling their children today about staying safe and (INAUDIBLE)?
MILLER: Well, from our perspective, we want to try to get out to children that -- and I have children too. And, you know, I know a lot of children who saw coverage of this were alarmed and scared and concerned about it. And that's obviously a normal reaction.
What we try to tell kids is you can't be afraid to go to school. You are safe in school. I mean, there are things that happen sometimes in life and this was a situation that was -- emanated from within this gentleman's head and no one knows exactly what he was thinking.
But by and large, I mean, you know, if students pay attention, if they do the drills, if they listen to their teachers, if they do what they're told when an emergency situation occurs, they'll be safe. And when the teachers tell them to get away from the school to a pre- existing rally point, then they need to do that. They need to listen to their teachers and they need to follow directions. And generally they're going to be safe.
QUESTION: Colonel, you talked about yesterday that you met with the local bishop. This community tries to live apart. How are the families coping? What (INAUDIBLE)?
MILLER: Yes, let me let me Major Kurtz speak to that. Because he actually met with the local bishop.
MAJOR JON D. KURTZ: Major Jon D. Kurtz.
QUESTION: Spelling?
QUESTION: Spell, please?
KURTZ: K-U-R-T-Z. First name is J-O-N.
I did have an opportunity yesterday to communicate with the bishop, as well as the school board for the local school here. They are an extraordinary group of people, I have to tell you that. They've been through an extreme tragedy. They've held up very well. They had very good questions that they asked. We provided them with whatever information as far as what took place during this criminal incident, as well as the best that we could provide as far as where the children were, how they were.
We tried to, at that point, make resources available to the families. I'm not going to get into what the specific resources were. They were counseling resources that were available not only to the families, but to the EMS community, as well as the police officers that were at the scene.
QUESTION: This is such a foreign, prolific thing for any community, but this one in particular. I mean, is it -- how hard was it for them to...
KURTZ: Once again, I think you'd be amazed at the resiliency and the strength of this community. They have the ability to, I think, look to the future as much as to the past and what happened here. They are dealing with it. They're dealing very well. Just like any community or any family, I think you're going to have some families that will deal with this one on one amongst themselves. And then you have other families that are seeking counsel amongst their friends in the community.
QUESTION: Have they forgiven?
KURTZ: That's not a question I can answer for them. I wouldn't even hazard a guess, sir.
QUESTION: Colonel, because you mentioned...
RENDELL: I want to -- just one thing to add. I spoke to one of the elders last night. And they are -- I think the strength and the resiliency in this community probably give it the ability to deal with a tragedy like this better than most, number one.
Number two, for those Amish who were -- families who were down at Children's Hospital, away from the immediate area, I spoke last night to the authorities at the Children's and spoke to Dr. Al Schuler (ph), the CEO, this morning. Children's said -- first of all, they're not unfamiliar with Children's Hospital. They have brought children to be treated at Children's Hospital before. Secondly, Children's is taking care of their housing needs and is working with them. So things seem to be under good control, even in Philadelphia at Children's. They're staying on sight, and if more come down, Children's will be take care of it.
QUESTION: Governor Rendell, do you see any needs for any changes in state public schools in terms of security?
RENDELL: Well, again, you know, you can make all the changes you want, but you can never stop a random act of violence by a person who is intent on killing themselves. It's the same thing as protecting the United -- the president of the United States. You can have 15 secret service agents there, but if someone is willing to swap their life for the president's, they're going to get a point-blank shot at the president.
Having said that, we are working on trying to -- right now, trying to develop a protocol. We have an excellent protocol, as Colonel Miller said, that PD shares with FEMA and (INAUDIBLE) state's emergency management agency, share -- and PD share with public schools as to what to do in a homeland security-type emergency.
Because of what happened yesterday, we're going to try to work up a new protocol for something like this. But the best -- in many ways, the best it can be is the same outline that the colonel gave.
QUESTION: Will you participating in the conference that the president has said he's going to organize next week about school violence?
RENDELL: I haven't been invited.
QUESTION: Governor, the state legislature is debating some gun control (INAUDIBLE) the next couple of days. Has...
RENDELL: The question, the state legislature is debating some gun control measures in the next several days, will this change the dynamic? I'm not sure what the thinking of the state legislature is, and I believe, with all my heart, that Pennsylvania needs stronger gun control legislation.
But, I think we should all understand no proposed law, none that I would think of or none that I've seen, could have ruled out this situation. This individual, as the Colonel said, has never had a criminal record, has no evidence on record of mental instability that would barred him from going into a gun shop and buying a handgun or a shotgun, et cetera. So he could have purchased these guns lawfully. We don't know that.
QUESTION: We do know that he purchased the 9-millimeter lawfully?
RENDELL: He purchased the 9-millimeter handgun lawfully. So there is no law out there -- I mean, our biggest push in the legislature is to eliminate straw purchasing. But no one, a month or anything, would have stopped this from happening.
We have -- you know, we have real problems in our society, because we tend to be so much more violent than almost any other country in the world, but -- and I think there are laws that can improve that. But it would be disingenuous for gun control advocates, myself included, to say that this demonstrates for better, stronger laws.
QUESTION: You said that you think the timing of the drug test was coincidental. Is it possible that he chose a (INAUDIBLE) because he was worried about what a test might reveal?
MILLER: I guess anything is possible, but there's nothing that we've seen that would show that he was concerned about this test. I mean, what we see is a man who meticulously is planning this type of a takeover event. And there's really nothing that we've seen to date that would indicate that he had any concern or problem about this drug test.
QUESTION: Are you doing toxicology tests?
MILLER: There are a number of tests being done through the coroner's office and for evidentiary purposes only.
QUESTION: ... the names of the victims of five young girls and five other hostages. Could you include the teacher's name?
MILLER: Let me verify that, because we initially told you that we believed one of the bodies at the site was that of the teacher's aide. And we said that because we didn't have an identification. The person was face down, the body was larger than some of the other bodies at the scene. We estimated that it may be a teacher's aide. We found out after being able to identify all of our victims that it was just a student. And that student was either 12 or 13, that we thought was maybe 15. So we made an error on that. But it five overall students.
QUESTION: ... all students plus the shooter himself?
MILLER: Yes. There were people in the school. All of them received gunshot wounds. Five students died. Five are still receiving treatment.
QUESTION: All of them were...
MILLER: The Miller girls are sisters, yes. And the Stolstress (ph) girls are sisters.
Sorry?
You know, I don't think we are ever going to know. The question is, are we going to be able to drive this out? I don't think we will ever know with what exactness or precision what he was thinking. He's gone. We can't interview him. His wife, his family couldn't pick up on anything, didn't know about this molestation, this alleged molestation that he says he engaged in, the dreams that he had, the anger that he had toward God about this.
So all -- we're just trying to represent what we know. And what we know paints the picture of a man who was -- who planned with precision, who wanted to do these things. And quite frankly, I think that the actions of the teacher and the troopers may have saved some additional violence and additional assault.
QUESTION: Any indication talking to family members whether or not...
MILLER: We have no evidence of that to this point, and we've interviewed number of family members.
Sir, did you have a question?
QUESTION: I just wanted to make sure we have this absolutely correct. We have 10 victims, plus the shooter?
MILLER: Ten victims, plus the shooter. We have five children that were killed. The shooter took his own life. We have five children that are still receiving treatment.
I can't go into that right now. They're receiving treatment. It's obviously not good. They have suffered from a number of different gunshot wounds. We are praying and we are hopeful. We have -- I'll comment on one of the children had a more minor situation, a gunshot wound to the back and the shoulder. And we believe that she is expected to make a full recovery. The other four, you know, we're just praying that they will be able to make a recovery.
QUESTION: Talk a little bit about how difficult it has been to notify the families, find out who these little girls are.
MILLER: Right. The biggest difficulty, and I may have mentioned to some of you, the biggest difficulty we had is that when we had all these victims at the scene, that we're triaging out we're trying to get help, the troopers were trying to provide lifesaving measures until the medevac got on the scene and we were able to move them out of here. We didn't know their identification. We didn't know who they were. We just knew we had a young, female victim that was taken to hospital x, but we didn't know who she was. So it was very difficult for us, because the Amish wouldn't fly, so we had to try to do something using ground transportation.
But early on there were some Amish who went to some hospitals where there loved ones weren't actually located, so it wasn't until we were able to get from the trauma centers color, digital photographs of the victims in the trauma centers and show them to teachers who were able to say, that is positively this child, then we were able to marry where that child was located with the family members. But something we had to move them from Delaware back into Pennsylvania, so that was a big challenge for us.
Right. Well, as the governor just said, it is a different culture. There are certain medical procedures that might be objectionable. But, by and large, they understand the need and they accepted the fact that we took them to these facilities.
QUESTION: Colonel, in 20/20 hindsight, in talking to the wife, does she believe that the death of their daughter (INAUDIBLE) even more than she realized at that moment?
MILLER: It's hard to say. I mean, she does acknowledge that the death of the daughter nine years ago was very traumatic event for him. And he referred to that over and over in the letter to her and in the letter he leaves in the truck, so it's obviously something that contributed to his anger, we think, what he says, his anger towards himself and his anger toward God.
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)
MILLER: No. Without getting into all of those specifics, the information we have from the scene and from what we saw indicates that the majority of the gunshot wounds were at close range to the back of the head. There were other people that were hit in different ways. We know, as I think I said earlier yesterday, he fired at least we think three to four rounds from a 12 gauge shotgun. We believe he fired 13 rounds from the nine-millimeter Springfield Arms automatic, and then he reloaded, and he fired at least one more round into himself. The one round out of the shotgun came down range to our troopers as they were advancing on the school.
So we don't think he was just firing indiscriminately. We think he had the children positioned in a way, they were bound, they couldn't get away, they were an easy target for him to hit, and I think but for the fact the troopers were trying to breaching the school, he would have fired rounds and tried to finish off more of his victims.
QUESTION: Colonel, you had said that the eyebolts might have been used to restrain the children in some way. Were any of the children, in fact, restrained using this eyebolt system?
MILLER: Not using the eyebolt system, but restrained in that their legs were restrained. Some were tied together. Some were tied just amongst theirselves. Our troopers had to cut those restraints to get the kids out of this.
QUESTION: And for any of the boys -- 15 boys escaped. Were any of those boys related to any of the girls who became gunshot victims?
MILLER: Yes.
QUESTION: You managed to interview the adults that were in the building as this all started to unfold. What are they telling you about what he said when he came in. You indicated yesterday he showed a gun and started talking to the kids about the gun. What were his actions inside up to the point where he released the boys and the adults.
MILLER: He just began by speaking about this gun. And has anyone ever seen this? Can someone help me find this? I mean, he wasn't really completely coherent as far as we know. And then after he was engaged in some communication, the teacher said, well sure, we'd be happy to help you look for it or whatever, just trying to generate conversation with him to try to assess what was going to happen, then he shifted into, he was very determined, serious. He wasn't agitated. He wasn't screaming. He was just taking charge and commanding control over the individuals within the facility.
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: Colonel, are you investigating the sale of the stun gun as a crime?
MILLER: Not necessarily. I mean, we're investigating how he came into contact with this stun gun. It's possible that that could be a crime. I think the more specific crime is a crime under Chapter IX as a prohibitive offensive weapons. In other words, it's illegal to possess it. We know it's illegal to possess a stun gun and use it for a criminal purpose. And we are trying to find out how he came about -- came into custody of that stun gun.
Yes, sir?
Well, obviously the copy cat aspect of this. You know, we can't say for sure. I mean, certainly is it possible that what happened in another state that was similar could have spurred him on? It's very possible.
But I truly believe, based on what we know, that this was a very deeply disturbed individual, but he wasn't disturbed in the sense that people could pick up on that at the surface. He was very deeply troubled underneath. And I think it was just a matter of time before he did something, given what he was dealing with at that time.
And your second part of the question was?
Oh, the notes.
The notes to the children were more germane. They were more, you know, you're a good kid, and, you know, those types of things. There was no specifics in the notes to the kids that gave us any indication of his motivation.
QUESTION: Did he tell them that he loved them?
MILLER: Yes. Yes, he did.
Yes, ma'am?
QUESTION: Colonel, you talked about (INAUDIBLE) motive twenty years ago (INAUDIBLE) but if he actually did something to the kids, why is that (INAUDIBLE)?
MILLER: I'm sorry to say, I mean, we'll never know. Certainly it's possible that if he committed something, and we speculated he committed some sort of molestation, that maybe even these kids weren't old enough to understand what happened.
But he was replaying that in his mind. And it sounds like what he was saying here in his notes was that he was having dreams for the last two years about re-offending, really, is what he's saying. And it looks like he acted upon that at the end. I just think he, perhaps, was interrupted as to some of his plan.
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: Where are the notes? Do you have them with you?
MILLER: I have copies of the notes. I'm not going to release the notes. I just wanted to give you the text of -- the gist of them.
QUESTION: Can you hold them up?
MILLER: I'll hold one up just for a second, just to give you...
QUESTION: And the checklist as well?
MILLER: Yes. Here's what, you know, one of the notes would like.
QUESTION: Can you hold the note to his wife, please?
MILLER: That's the one I'm holding.
QUESTION: Can you talk again about what he said in the conversation with his wife? I mean, how long the conversation was, but specifically (INAUDIBLE)?
MILLER: The conversation with his wife was of short duration. He told her, and I'll tell you in one second, I'm going to put this down for a second. He...
QUESTION: Is that the actual note or a photo copy of the note? MILLER: That's a photo copy of the note.
QUESTION: Do you have all the notes with you?
MILLER: The other ones are just like that, only they're to his kids.
Just let me answer this one question.
When he spoke to his wife, as I said, it was a phone call of short duration. He basically told her the police are here. He said I molested, and then he named two minor children, 20 years ago.
QUESTION: Were they male or female?
MILLER: I'm not going to release that at this time because I don't know for sure. I mean, I don't know -- I mean, he -- we don't know if they were male or female. He related -- he talked about females, but we don't know if they were in fact males or females.
QUESTION: He didn't give names?
MILLER: He did give names. He gave names to his wife. That's the only time his wife was able to connect what was written -- yes, on the phone -- what was written in the note to what he said before he died.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) male or female?
MILLER: What's that?
QUESTION: The names are...
MILLER: Yes. The names that he related to her are female. Right.
QUESTION: You said they were preparing for a breach. What were those separations? What did that consist of? And could that have been taken as a threatening action by him?
MILLER: I don't think it could have been taken as a threatening action by him, because I don't believe that he was in a position to be able to see everything they were doing. What they were doing, is they were readying ballistic shields, weaponry to be able to -- if they had to breach the school -- it just so happened that within seconds he started firing and they had no choice, they were trying to get in.
QUESTION: What were the (INAUDIBLE) children doing up at the (INAUDIBLE)
MILLER: I believe I mentioned those ages. Let me just see. The victims that are currently undertaking treatment at the hospital are ages six, thirteen, eight, eleven, and eight.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) MILLER: You know what, I can't, only because we've had some conflict over where people were moved to, so I don't want to -- OK. We understand three are in Children's' Hospital of Philadelphia and two are in Hershey.
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: Colonel, have you talked to the troopers, particularly the first ones in that one room schoolhouse? And are you concerned about the impact this might have on them, what they might go through?
MILLER: Absolutely, I've talked to them. And I am very concerned about the impact something like this has on our personnel. And that's why we've mandated that all of our personnel, including myself, be critically debriefed Members Assistance Team. And that includes trained personnel and psychologists to make sure that everyone has a chance to work through, because when they're working, they're busy, they're focused on what they are doing, they're trying to save lives. At some point when it slows down, they need to have as soon as possible -- we didn't let anyone actually leave the scene.
We had two serious incidents yesterdays. You probably may be aware that we had another situation where, actually, another individual committed suicide, and actually in front of three of the trooopers that were at the first crime scene.
So we did not want to release these people until we had a chance to have them debriefed. And we did that. And we have more debriefings occur. And we've debriefed about forty people so far. We've got more set up for today and more set up for tomorrow. And we will continue until have them all done.
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: Roberts' wife, obviously, she sent out a statement, a lot of our T.V. stations aired it, has she sent anything to the Amish families? Have they heard anything from her?
MILLER: Well, I think in the course of her remarks, that I believe were put forth by a family member, she stated that they are grieving as well for the tragedy in the community. We share that sense of loss not only for the community but also for her and her children. Obviously, there are no winners here. This is an extreme situation all the way around. And I think she was equally -- his parents, everyone, just completely taken aback. This is not the person that they thought they were dealing with.
Yes, ma'am?
QUESTION: Sir, I just want to clarify. Did you or did you not speak to the people and the children apparently said (INAUDIBLE)?
MILLER: Right. We had spoken to relatives. We have spoken, I think, to everybody but those two. When we came out here, we were just in the process of locating them. So I don't know, while I'm standing here, it's possible someone talked to them, I'm not sure. And we don't know what that's going to yield. Right now we are just basing it upon what he said and what he wrote.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: How many families (INAUDIBLE)? DO you know that?
MILLER: Yes, I do. They were a total of ten families that had students in that school. And somebody asked to see this checklist, I believe. Is that right? Do you want to see it?
QUESTION: So, Colonel, does that every family who had a student in there is impacted by having a gunshot wound victim, obviously, here? We are talking about ten total families?
MILLER: Every family actually -- seven families were impacted out of the ten. Here's the notes. Obviously, "on the reg" (ph), the reg was just a notation, that's not -- this is part of the notebook where he put a checklist of items that I recited to you that we recovered at the scene.
QUESTION: Did you release the 911 tape?
MILLER: No, that's not up to us to release, and I believe it would be...
QUESTION: Could you hold it up, please?
MILLER: Yes, I will.
QUESTION: Who can release the 911 tapes or a transcript of them?
MILLER: The 911 tape is not, as I understand it, allowed to be released as per the law. So there's no requirement to release that. So normally those -- I know routinely those 911 tapes are not released.
QUESTION: What about a transcript of the tape?
MILLER: That's something we can look into. We haven't really gotten that far. We've been kind of busy with the other things.
Yes, ma'am?
QUESTION: When he got into the building, and talked to the children and the teachers, did he tell them that he planned to use the gun or to kill himself?
MILLER: The only thing, and again, this is sketchy because we had people going in and out and they were leaving, but from what I understand, he had made some statements about just paying attention to what he said and they wouldn't get hurt, that sort of thing.
At some point, that was told to us. I'm not 100 percent certain that that's exactly what he said, but something to that effect is what we believe was stated.
Yes, sir? QUESTION: What munitions did the shotgun have?
MILLER: I believe double 00 buck. Double 00 buck.
QUESTION: Can you talk about the hardware store where he bought some of the materials?
MILLER: The hardware store where he bought those materials was the Valley Hardware Store in Christiana, Pennsylvania.
QUESTION: And where did he shoot himself?
MILLER: He shot himself in the head.
QUESTION: Are the troopers involved, any of them, are they going to be on any kind of paid leave or anything, or are they still on the job?
MILLER: No, they are still on the job. We are just making sure that we get them debriefed, critically debriefed and reviewed, and that they're cleared to go back on normal assignment.
QUESTION: colonel, just a housekeeping question. Do you think we could get that photo one more time?
MILLER: I'll try to. I'll put one as we're talking here.
QUESTION: Could you spell Elise?
MILLER; Spell Elise?
Elise, as it's presented to me, is E-L-I-S-E. E-L-I-S-E. Approximately nine years ago.
QUESTION: Do you have a date on the...?
MILLER: I think it was -- no, I don't have a date. It's just -- what I right here is nine years ago. We'll try to get that for you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: November 14th, 1997.
MILLER: November 14, 1997. November 14, 1997.
QUESTION: That was when she died?
QUESTION: She was born and died within 20 minutes of each other. And she's buried in a cemetery near her home.
QUESTION: Not here?
MILLER: In this area.
QUESTION: In this cemetery?
MILLER: Not at this church, but I mean -- I don't think it's this cemetery. It's a cemetery within close proximity to the home. I'm not sure exactly, there's a number of cemeteries around. I would want to tell you -- I'm not sure which one she's -- I think we have that information, I just don't have it in front of me.
QUESTION: Was that their first child?
MILLER: She was born premature, and she died within 20 minutes. I don't know if that was the first child.
QUESTION: Colonel, the fact that he parked every day at the auction house, does that mean he saw these school children on a daily basis? (INAUDIBLE).
MILLER: I think it's a safe assumption that if he parked his milk vehicle at that location every day, that he most likely crossed the roadways in and about where these children would be making their way to school or back home from school or whatever. You know, he was in the neighborhood, he was in the community, so certainly he didn't just stumble upon the school, in our opinion. He knew it, he knew what he could find there, and that's why we believe it was a target of opportunity, because it had the victim selection that he was looking for.
QUESTION: Colonel, how long had he worked as a milk truck driver?
MILLER: I'm just told that the oldest child that they have is 6, so Elyse would have been their first-born child.
QUESTION: And Colonel, how long had he worked as a milk truck driver?
MILLER: I'm not sure if we know that. We don't know.
QUESTION: Was he still breathing when the troopers entered the school house, was he still alive, or was he dead...
MILLER: As they were entering the school house, he was reloading and -- it was simultaneous. He shot himself in the head as they were coming in through the window.
QUESTION: Colonel, do you know if any of the children were on his milk runs, their families?
MILLER: No, I don't know that.
QUESTION: What's Ms. Stoke's (ph) first name?
MILLER: I don't know what.
QUESTION: Have you ever seen a case where the alleged assailant was just so secretive, where no one had a clue at all about what was going to transpire?
MILLER: I don't think it's completely unusual to have a situation where somebody is living separate lives, if you will, or maybe harboring intentions that aren't broadcast out there. I mean, it doesn't -- it's not something that happens all the time, but we do see cases where families go, Geez, I didn't have any idea this person was leading a double life. I'm not saying this individual was, but he certainly was very troubled, psychologically deep down and was dealing with things that nobody else knew he was dealing with.
QUESTION: When's your next briefing?
MILLER: We'll do that as we know if we have any additional information to share with you. We're still working some things out. Hopefully -- we've given you everything we have to this point.
QUESTION: Could we get the pastor in here?
MILLER: I think the pastor's here; I'll step out.
QUESTION: -- the letter? Can we see the letter one more time?
QUESTION: Mrs. Roberts was (INAUDIBLE). Do you know the family?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do not know the family real well -- I do know Mrs. Roberts as part of our extended church community. She was the leader of the Mothers In Touch prayer group. They call themselves Moms In Touch. It's a prayer group that comes to pray for our children, for our schoolchildren, for our community children. And that prayer group was being held while he was making his preparations.
QUESTION: How has this affected you -- you're a part of this community -- are you able...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It cuts us to the core.
QUESTION: Have you had any communication with (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I haven't.
QUESTION: Can we get your name, please?
Douglas Hileman. H-i-l-e-m-a-n.
QUESTION: I'm sorry, can you spell that again please?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: H-I-L-E-M-A-N.
QUESTION: What church...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the pastor of this congregation, Middle Ocarera Presbyterian Church
(ENDED IN PROGRESS)
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