HARRISBURG, Pa. — A woman who was severely injured when a gunman killed five girls and wounded her and four other girls during an attack on their one-room Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania has died 18 years later, a funeral director said Thursday.
Rosanna S. King, 23, died at her home on Tuesday and a funeral is planned at her home in the farming community of Paradise on Friday, according to an obituary from Furman Home for Funerals in Leola. Funeral director Philip Furman confirmed Thursday she was among those shot at the West Nickel Mines Amish School in October 2006.
Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 32-year-old milk truck driver, barricaded himself inside the schoolhouse and let boys and several adults go as he tied up 10 girls and shot them before taking his own life as police closed in.
Rosanna King, who belonged to an Old Order Amish Church community, was 6 years old at the time and had been considered the most severely injured survivor. She had been shot in the head and the attack left her unable to talk and needing a tube to be fed. She was dependent on others for personal care and mobility.
A year afterward, her family said in a statement she was able to recognize family members, smiled a lot and had limited physical movement. They said in 2007 that “the hardest part has been to see her suffer.”
She will be buried in the Bart Cemetery.
Roberts’ mother, Terri Roberts, regularly visited Rosanna King, inspired by the forgiveness the Amish community expressed to her and her family after the attack.
In a 2013 interview, Rosanna’s father, Christ King, said there were times when he asked himself if he had really forgiven the shooter.
“We have a lot of work to do to live up to what we are bragged up to be,” Christ King said back then. “Everyone was talking about this forgiveness thing, and I felt that was putting a lot of weight on our shoulders to live up to that.”
Roberts indicated in suicide notes left behind and during a last call with his wife that he had been tormented by unsubstantiated memories of having molested a couple of young relatives and by the death of his newborn daughter in 1997.
The schoolhouse was torn down 10 days after the killings and a new one was constructed nearby.
The Amish prioritize their deep Christian faith and family life, eschewing many modern conveniences. They wear traditional clothing and use horses and buggies for much of their transportation. They often speak a German dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch.
Rosanna King died the same week a 14-year-old Georgia student was charged with using an assault-style rifle to kill two students and two teachers at his high school about an hour outside of Atlanta. There have been more than 600 mass killings in the United States since 2006.