A 15-year-old teenager was responsible for a shooting at a Wisconsin school that left three dead and several injured. The young woman who also died was a student on campus.
A 15-year-old student shot and killed a teacher and another teenager at a private Christian school in Wisconsin on Monday, in the last week before the Christmas break. The attacker also died, police reported.
The shooter, who was identified at a news conference Monday night, also wounded six other people in the study hall at Abundant Life Christian School, including two students who were hospitalized in critical condition, the chief said. Madison Police Officer Shon Barnes. A teacher and three students were taken to hospital with less serious injuries, and two of them were discharged Monday night.
The incident terrified the school, including a second-grade student who made the 911 call that brought dozens of police officers to the small center.
“I feel dismayed, so close to Christmas,” Barnes said. “Every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever… We need to find out and try to piece together what exactly happened.”
Barbara Wiers, director of elementary and school relations at Abundant Life Christian School, said the students “behaved magnificently.”
He assured that when the school implements safety protocols, which it had done shortly before the start of the school year, the management always announces that it is a drill. That didn't happen on Monday.
“When they heard, 'Lockdown, lockdown,' they knew it was a real situation,” he said.
Police reported that the attacker, identified as Natalie Rupnow, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound when officers arrived and died on the way to the hospital. Barnes declined to give details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school in Madison, the state capital, with approximately 390 students ranging from kindergarten through high school. After the shooting, the students were taken to the neighboring church, from where they were taken by bus to another location to meet their families.
Wiers said the school does not have metal detectors, but uses other security measures, including cameras.
The children were reunited with their families at a medical building located 1.6 kilometers (one mile) from the school. Parents hugged their children or held them tightly by the hands or shoulders as they walked. One girl was draped with an adult's coat over her shoulders as she walked to a parking lot full of police vehicles.
“As difficult as this day was, that person was someone else's son and today he is no longer there,” the police chief said.
The motive for the shooting or whether the victims were specific targets is unknown at this time, Barnes said.
“I don't know why, and I feel like if we knew why, we could avoid this kind of thing,” he told reporters.
Barnes said police were speaking to the attacker's father and other family members, who were cooperating, and their home was being searched.
“He lost someone too,” Barnes said of the girl's father. “And that is why we are not going to rush with the information. “We will take our time and make sure we do our job diligently.”
The first 911 call reporting an active shooter came in shortly before 11 a.m. First responders, who were in training just 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the school, raced to get to the center, Barnes said. They arrived in three minutes and immediately entered the facilities.
Classes were being held inside when the shooting began, Barnes explained.
Investigators believe the attacker used a 9mm caliber handgun, he told AP a police official also on condition of anonymity.
“I am not aware that the school had metal detectors nor should it have. “It’s a safe space,” Barnes said.
The police blocked the streets surrounding the school. Federal agents arrived at the scene to collaborate with local police.
The school asked for prayers in a brief Facebook post.
Bethany Highman, the mother of a student, went to the school after hearing about the shooting and learned via FaceTime that her daughter was okay.
“As soon as it happened, your world stops for a minute. Nothing else matters,” Highman said. “There is no one around you. “You just run out the door and try to do everything you can as a parent to be with your kids.”
President Joe Biden issued a statement citing the incident to call on Congress to pass universal background checks, a national red flag law and other restrictions on firearms.
“We can never accept the senseless violence that traumatizes children, their families, and tears apart entire communities,” Biden declared. The president reached out to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and offered his support.
Evers noted that it is “unthinkable” for a student or teacher to go to school and not come home.
In recent years, there have been dozens of school shootings in the United States, including some particularly deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
The shootings have sparked fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are accustomed to carrying out mock gun attacks in their classrooms. But school shootings have done little to change the nation's 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.
Rhodes-Conway said the country needs to do more to prevent gun violence.
“I was hoping this day would never come to Madison,” he said.
(With information from Associated Press and Reuters)