MADISON, Wis. (WFRV) - A teenage student opened fire with a handgun Monday at a Christian school in Wisconsin, killing a teacher and another teenager during the final week before Christmas break. The shooter also died, police said.
The shooting occurred in a study hall and was reported to police by a second grader, police said at a Monday night press conference. Wisconsin police identified the shooter as a 15-year-old female student.
Six others were injured and are being treated at the hospital, including two students who were in critical, life-threatening condition.
"But these are just the physical injuries we know about," said Madison Police Chief Shon F. Barnes. "There will be other injuries that we have to face for a very, very long time."
During an earlier press conference, police initially said five people had been killed. However, they later clarified that was a mistake.
Police received a call reporting an active shooter just before 11 a.m. on Monday. When officers arrived, they found multiple gunshot wound victims.
Police said the shooter, identified as Natalie Rupnow, was dead by apparent suicide when officers arrived. Barnes declined to give details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family.
He also warned people against sharing unconfirmed reports on social media about the shooter’s identity.
“What that does is it helps erode the trust in this process,” he said.
Authorities said the investigation is active and ongoing.
Investigators did not immediately know a motive for the shooting, Barnes said.
“I don’t know why, and I feel like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” he said.
Barnes said detectives were, “working hard to find as many answers as we can.”
School shootings by teenage females have been extremely rare in U.S. history, with males in their teens and 20s carrying out the vast majority most of them, according to David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database.
In a blog post last year, he pointed to a handful of school shootings that involved perpetrators who identified as female, including a 16-year-old girl who shot and killed two and injured several others at San Diego elementary school in 1979.
Madison’s police chief ended the agency’s third press conference of the day by asking people to focus their attention on the Abundant Life Christian School community.
“These children are now the latest group of survivors of a school shooting,” Barnes said. “This time, unfortunately, in Madison, Wisconsin.”
School officials have not yet decided if classes will start up again this week. Barbara Wiers, director of elementary and school relations for Abundant Life Christian School, said Monday began the last week of school prior to winter break.
She said their goal is to get the school’s staff together early in the week and then try to have some community opportunities for the students to reconnect.
Abundant Life Christian School has 420 students from kindergarten to 12th grade, according to school administrators. This was the last week of school scheduled for the year ahead of the Christmas vacation.
In a statement, President Joe Biden cited the tragedy in calling on Congress to pass universal background checks, a national red flag law and certain gun restrictions.
“We can never accept senseless violence that traumatizes children, their families, and tears entire communities apart,” Biden said.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said it's “unthinkable” that a child or teacher would go to school and never return home.
"Targeted violence is preventable ... when somebody conducts a school shooting they don't simply snap, they don't just decide one day to engage in this egregious behavior, instead, they make a decision and start research and planning towards an act of violence," said Trish Kilpin, Wisconsin Department of Justice Office of School Safety (OSS) executive director. "So encourage all in the community – students, parents alike – to report, to speak up."
It was the latest among dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
The shootings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to doing active shooter drills in their classrooms. But school shootings have done little to move the needle on national gun laws.
Firearms were the leading cause of death among children in 2020 and 2021, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
