Amish mourn trooper who comforted them after massacre
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NICKEL MINES (AP) – Members of the Amish community are mourning the death of a Pennsylvania state trooper who comforted and befriended survivors of a 2006 schoolhouse shooting rampage.
Trooper Jonathan Smith died at home Friday of pancreatic cancer. He was 47.
Smith was one of the first troopers to force his way into a barricaded one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines where a milk truck driver fatally shot five girls and wounded five others before killing himself.
The trooper helped carry the wounded girls outside. He also went on to befriend the survivors and the victims’ families.
Amos Fisher told LNP newspaper (http://bit.ly/1FewQOo ) that members of the Amish community took comfort in knowing Smith was looking after them.
Fisher says the trooper “helped ease the pain.”