A 15-year-old girl opened fire inside her Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday, killing a teacher and a student and injuring six others.
Natalie Rupnow, the suspect, has also died, police said. The teen, known as Samantha, appears to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police said the teenage suspect used a handgun. According to Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes, authorities are investigating the firearm’s origin and searching Rupnow’s home on the city’s north side.
Barnes stated at a news conference that the motive is unclear.
“I don’t know whether [the shooter] was transgender or not,” Barnes said at the conference, adding that authorities weren’t concerned. “I don’t think that whatever happened today has anything to do with how she, he, or they may have wanted to be identified.”
It is also unclear whether any of the victims were specifically targeted, officials said on Monday.
The suspect’s father was allegedly speaking with police at one of their facilities.
They’re “trying to determine what he knew or may have not known about what happened today, but again, he lost someone as well,” according to Barnes.
Barnes also stated that police are not currently seeking to charge Rupnow’s parents in connection with the fatal shooting.
“The parents are fully cooperating; we have no reason to believe that they have committed a crime at this time,” Barnes assured us.
“This has obviously rocked our school community,” said Barbara Wiers, director of elementary and school relations at Abundant Life Christian School. “But we know it affects not just our school community, but Madison and the greater area as well as all schools.”
The shooting occurred shortly before 11 a.m. in a study hall with a mix of ages and grades.
A second-grader called 911.
“Let that sink in for a minute,” Barnes suggested. “A second-grade student called 911 at 10:57 a.m. to report a shooting at school.”
The school does not have metal detectors or a school resource officer, but it does have other security measures in place, such as cameras, she said.
Before the start of the school year, we underwent some retraining. We work on this. We conduct lockdown and evacuation drills as part of our standard drill protocols. “Our faculty are well-versed in that,” she stated.
“The training we conducted with the Madison Police Department at the beginning of the year, prior to the students’ return to campus, included some new updates, which we examined.” Therefore, I believe that everything was brand-new for our faculty.
“I cannot tell you how well our students performed in that process. When they realized that this was just a drill, they were obviously terrified. When they heard ‘Lockdown, lockdown,’ and nothing else, they knew it was real,” Weirs said, adding, “But they handled themselves brilliantly.”
Barnes reported that two students are in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, while three other students and a teacher sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
On Monday evening, SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital – Madison released two of the four injured individuals.
Officers responded to an active shooter report at 10:57 a.m.
Barnes said the suspect was dead when police arrived, and no officers fired their weapons.
The shooting was “confined to one space,” but the chief did not specify whether it occurred in a classroom or a hallway.
Police believe the suspect was inside the school and nobody broke in.
“I never saw so many police cars in my life—just blue and red lights lining the school, lining the streets. The fire department, paramedics, and everyone else were present, swarming the usually quiet neighborhood, as John Diaz De Leon reported to ABC News Live.
He reported seeing officers with long guns at the scene and older students running from the school across the parking lot.
“Later on, very slowly, in a more orderly fashion, the younger students holding hands were let out to go across the parking lot,” he said.
Barnes announced the clearing of the school. There’s no danger to the community, he said.
The suspect’s family is cooperating, the police chief said.
Detectives are investigating whether there were any potential warning signs, Barnes said.
By Monday evening, Barnes reported that all students had reunited with their parents. About 390 students from kindergarten through 12th grade attend the private school.
“Our hope is that there will be some good that comes out of this as we can learn and grow and continue to support other schools,” Weirs said.
She thanked first responders for their support and said that the school community is leaning on their faith at this time.
President Joe Biden described the incident as “shocking and unconscionable” in a statement issued Monday evening, urging Congress to act “now.”
He insisted on passing “commonsense” gun safety laws such as universal background checks, a national red flag law, and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“It is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence,” the statement read. It continued: “We cannot continue to accept it as normal.”
Biden also mentioned his administration’s efforts to combat the gun violence epidemic in the United States, including the establishment of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, while emphasizing the need for more action and offering his prayers to those affected in Madison.
The Madison police chief stated that he began his career as a teacher.
“We owe it to our community to do everything possible to ensure [schools are] not only a special place but a safe place,” he stated. ”
“I hoped that this day would never come in Madison,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said.
She emphasized the importance of gun violence prevention and stated that she hopes the community and country will ensure that “no public official ever has to stand in this position again.”
Jill Underly, Wisconsin’s superintendent of public instruction, also emphasized the need for change, saying in a statement, “This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to protect our children and our educators to ensure that such horrors never happen again. We will not rest until we find solutions that make our schools safe.”
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement, “There are no words to describe the devastation and heartbreak we feel,” calling the shooting a “gut-wrenching tragedy.”
Evers disclosed that he and his spouse are “praying for the families and loved ones of those whose lives were so senselessly taken and for the educators, staff, and the entire Abundant Life school community.”
“It is unthinkable that a kid or an educator might wake up and go to school one morning and never come home,” he told me. “This should never happen, and I will never accept this as a foregone reality or stop working to change it.”
