c. 2006 Religion News Service

BART, Pa. _ It’s difficult for many to imagine that the man who opened fire in a one-room Amish schoolhouse on Monday (Oct. 2) is the same man who took his sons to soccer practice and his daughter shopping.

Marie Roberts, the wife of gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV, said it wasn’t the same man.

“The man that did this today was not the Charlie I’ve been married to for almost 10 years,” Marie Roberts said in a statement read to the media by a family friend. “My husband was loving, supportive and thoughtful _ all the things you’d always want and more.”

There’s no indication of why or when Roberts, 32, known by many people as “Charlie,” changed into the madman who executed children.

State police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said the rambling letters Roberts left for his children and his wife at their home just a mile or two from the schoolhouse show a side of him unknown to his family or friends.

In the days before the shooting, Miller said, Roberts became angry with his life, angry with God. Roberts apparently picked the Amish school because he wanted to kill young girls as a way of “acting out in revenge for something that happened 20 years ago,” Miller said.

(The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Roberts said he had molested young relatives years ago and was haunted by desires to do it again, according to authorities.)

The Roberts family said the gunman wasn’t a vengeful man. He was a mild-mannered milk-tanker driver who lived in this tight-knit Amish community. Police said he had no prior record.

“He was never a problem. He was a family man,” said Roberts’ grandfather, speaking at the home of Roberts’ parents. “We’re shocked. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Overcome by emotion, Roberts’ grandmother seemed to gaze into the distance looking for answers. Then she let go of her emotions when reality set in.

“He was a good son and a good father,” she said. “He did that. He killed kids.”

Although Roberts was a hunter, Jim Brubaker, his cousin by marriage, said Roberts never used a gun for anything but shooting game. Brubaker also never saw Roberts angry.

Charles Roberts was the picture of the consummate family man to those who watched him take his children to the bus stop every morning.

An Amish woman who did not want to identify herself said it’s hard for her to reconcile the stories she’s heard about what Roberts did with her fond memories of him. “He was a good man,” she said, declining to say more.

A 23-year-old Amish man walked near Roberts’ home in the hours after the shooting. He characterized Roberts as “very dependable.”

Roberts picked up the milk at the man’s dairy farm, as he had done routinely for several years. The last time he saw Roberts was about 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

“He was a terrific milk-tanker driver,” the man said. “He was a very nice man,” he added. “I never thought any shooting out of him.”

Morgan Erb, a 15-year-old girl who baby-sat Roberts’ kids, said he was a quiet man, someone who “stuck to himself.”

“He never looked you in the eye when he talked to you,” Morgan said. “He seemed nice enough.”

KRE/JL END CASSIDY

(Carrie Cassidy and T.W. Burger write for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa.)

Editors: To obtain photos of the shooting at the Amish school, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

Also see related stories, RNS-AMISH-911, RNS-AMISH-VIOLENCE and RNS-AMISH-SCHOOLS, all transmitted Oct. 3, 2006.