Teacher and a teen student killed in shooting at a Christian school in Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. — A teenage student opened fire with a handgun at a private Christian school in Wisconsin on Monday, killing a teacher and another teen. The shooter also died, police said.
The shooting happened in a study hall and was reported to police by a second-grader, police said Monday night. Wisconsin police identified the shooter as a 15-year-old female student.
In addition to the two people killed, the shooter also wounded six others at Abundant Life Christian School, including two students who were in critical condition, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. A teacher and three students had been taken to a hospital with less serious injuries, and two of them had been released by Monday evening.
Police said the shooter, identified as Natalie Rupnow, was dead by apparent suicide when officers arrived. Barnes declined to give more details about the shooter.
Investigators did not know a motive for the shooting, Barnes said.
“Every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever. ... We need to figure out and try to piece together what exactly happened,” Barnes said.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational pre-K to12th grade Christian school with about 390 students in Madison, the state capital. Children and families were reunited at a medical building about a mile away.
Parents pressed children against their chests while others squeezed hands and shoulders as they walked side by side. One girl was comforted with an adult-size coat around her shoulders as she moved to a parking lot teeming with police vehicles.
Georgia school shooting: The dead were identified as two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta. Nine others were injured.
Barbara Wiers, director of elementary and school relations for Abundant Life Christian School, said students “handled themselves magnificently.”
She said when the school practices safety routines, which it had done just before the school year, leaders always announce that it is a drill. That didn’t happen Monday.
“When they heard, ‘Lockdown, lockdown,’ they knew it was real,” she said.
Wiers said the school does not have metal detectors but uses other security measures including cameras.
A motive for the shooting was not immediately known, but Barnes said they’re talking with the parents of the suspected shooter and they are cooperating. He also said he didn’t know if the people shot had been targeted.
“I don’t know why, and I feel like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” he told reporters.
A search warrant had been issued Monday to a Madison home, he said.
Someone from the school called 911 shortly before 11 a.m. to report an active shooter, Barnes said. First responders who were in training just three miles away dashed to the school, Barnes said. Police did not fire their weapons when they rushed into the building, he added.
The uncle of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooter who killed 19 students and two teachers begged police to let him try to talk his nephew down, 911 call shows.
Police blocked off roads around the school. Federal agents were at the scene to assist local law enforcement.
Bethany Highman, the mother of a student, rushed to the school after hearing about the shooting and learned over FaceTime that her daughter was OK.
“As soon as it happened, your world stops for a minute. Nothing else matters,” Highman said. “There’s nobody around you. You just bolt for the door and try to do everything you can as a parent to be with your kids.”
In a statement, President 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.
He spoke with Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and offered his support.
Evers said it’s “unthinkable” that a child or teacher would go to school and never return home.
The school shooting was the the latest among dozens across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Conn.; Parkland, Fla.; 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 healthcare issues.
Rhodes-Conway said the country needs to do more to prevent gun violence.
“I hoped that this day would never come to Madison,” she said.
Bauer writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Ed White and Josh Funk contributed to this report.
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