Shooter kills 2, self at Wisconsin K-12 school

MADISON, Wis. (CN) — A shooter killed two people and injured six others on Monday after opening fire at Abundant Life Christian School in Wisconsin.

The dead include a teenage student and a teacher. Police say the shooter, a student at the school, is also deceased, likely by suicide. Two injured students are in critical condition while four others are being treated for non-life threatening injuries.

The shooter was identified by authorities in a final press conference on Monday evening as 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha.

The shooting happened inside a classroom during a study hall with students of mixed grades. A second-grade student called 911 to alert authorities, according to Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes.

“I’m going to let that soak in for a moment. A second grade student called 911 to report a shooting at school,” Barnes said.

Barnes said officers were dispatched at 10:57 a.m. and entered the school at 11:00 a.m. They did not fire their weapons. Nearby schools went on lockdown as a precaution. A special event team was training for situations like this just three miles away from the school and responded immediately to put that training to the test, Barnes said.

At the third press conference led by Barnes on Monday evening, he announced that all students of Abundant Life have been reunified with their parents, and teachers who stayed behind to care for students will be on their way home soon.

Police say the teenage shooter used a handgun and confined her attack to one space. Authorities have made contact with the shooter’s family, and her father is cooperating with the investigation.

“He lost someone as well,” Barnes said. “And so we’re not going to rush the information, we’ll take out time and certainly do our due diligence.”

A search warrant was executed on that family’s home on the north side of Madison to determine whether the student acted alone and if she had a motive.

Madison Fire Chief Chris Carbon said 15 ambulances responded to the scene and the injured were transported to local hospitals within just 15 minutes.

Governor Tony Evers in a statement decried the latest act of gun violence in a school.

“As a father, a grandfather, and as a governor, it is unthinkable that a kid or an educator might wake up and go to school one morning and never come home,” Evers said in a statement. “This should never happen, and I will never accept this as a foregone reality or stop working to change it.”

Abundant Life Christian School is a private, nondenominational K-12 school of fewer than 400 students, according to its website.

“No community should ever have to endure such a tragedy,” Dane County Executive Melissa Agard said in a statement. “Dane County stands with you, and we are here to support you in any way possible.”

State superintendent Jill Underly echoed Agard’s statement and added a call to action on gun violence in schools: “We owe it to every student, parent and teacher to turn this great sense of grief that we are experiencing into action and build a future where senseless acts of violence are no longer a reality. The time for change is long past.”

The school asked for support from the community on its Facebook page, which saw over 800 comments offering prayers and noting the weight of this shooting so close to Christmas. The school’s holiday break was meant to begin next week until Jan. 2, according to the calendar on its website.

The Mass Violence Critical Response team, a group trained in responding to victims of mass violence, has been mobilized to support the school in the coming weeks.

The Republicans of Dane County posted to the school’s page that the shooter was a 17-year-old girl named Samantha, and linked to an expanded post on X from right-wing talk show host Vicki McKenna. Most of the 30 comments erroneously claimed that the shooter was a transgender student, using derogatory and inflammatory language against the minor child.

The post has since been deleted, but conspiracy theories continue to swirl on X.

On Monday night, Barnes said that he had no knowledge of Rupnow’s gender identity, and that he didn’t think the shooting had anything to do with it.

Barnes also slammed misinformation on social media about the shooter’s identity: It erodes the trust in this process, and fans the flames of misinformation and fear at a time when we need to come together and not be divided by anything.”

There have been 1,388 school shootings in the U.S. since 2013, most of which were perpetuated by boys in their teens and 20s, according to the K-12 School Shooting database.

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway offered condolences and urged those who may need mental health support to call the suicide and mental health helpline to talk to a professional.

“Our entire community needs to be part of the solution here — there are many things we can do, and we will have those conversations in the coming days, but our focus now must be on supporting our young people. The authorities will release information as it becomes available,” Rhodes-Conway said in a press conference.

Several vigils and gatherings have already been planned to support the Abundant Life school community, including one at the state capitol building on Tuesday organized by The Boys and Girls Club.

Barbara Wiers, director of elementary and school relations for Abundant Life, expressed pride in her school on Monday. “They were clearly scared when they realized it was real, but they handled themselves brilliantly and the faculty did what we were trained to do. We have been through a number of trainings, and they employed that knowledge perfectly.”

A manifesto is circulating on social media, and Barnes said police were unable to verify its authenticity as of Monday evening.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). Visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.

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