A youth opened fire at a private Christian school Monday morning in Wisconsin, killing two people in the final week before Christmas break. The shooter also died, police said.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes offered no details on the victims but said other people were wounded at Abundant Life Christian School, a K-12 school with about 390 students. Police previously said a total of five people had died.
Madison police in a statement said the suspected shooter was a student at the school. Police said seven people were hurt with injuries ranging broadly from “minor to life-threatening.”
“Today is a sad, sad day, not only for Madison but for our entire country,” Barnes told reporters.
He said police were alerted shortly before 11 a.m. and did not fire their weapons when they rushed into the school. Barnes suggested the shooter died by suicide.
“They found the person responsible who was down, deceased,” the chief said.
“I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas,” he 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 police were alerted shortly before 11 a.m. and did not fire their weapons when they rushed into the building.
Barnes identified the weapon police found as a handgun and said the gunfire was confined to one space. He didn’t specify whether it was a classroom.
“I’m not aware that the school had metal detectors nor should schools have metal detectors. It’s a safe space,” Barnes said.
Police blocked off roads around the school. Federal agents were at the scene to assist local law enforcement.
“We are praying for the kids, educators, and entire Abundant Life school community as we await more information and are grateful for the first responders who are working quickly to respond,” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement.
In a statement, the White House said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting and officials were in touch with local authorities to provide support.
Abundant Life Christian School, which is nondenominational, asked for prayers in a brief Facebook post.
John Diaz De Leon, who lives nearby and attends the adjacent City Church, told WMTV-TV he heard an intense blare of sirens as police responded.
“I didn’t know there were that many squad cars in Madison. We saw a few guys with long guns. They went into the school with a dog,” De Leon said of police. “Later on I saw groups of kids coming out of the school into the church sanctuary.”
It was the 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.
In Las Vegas, Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers opened a news conference Monday by talking about the shooting.
“Not a lot to say. Just a shame this keeps happening,” Rivers said, unprompted and before any questions could be asked. “Kids can’t go to school safe, and it just seems like we don’t do anything about it. Not going to get up here on the podium and give a long speech — except for it’s just bad and that we are thinking about them.”
Las Vegas was the site of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history in 2017, when 58 people were killed and more than 850 were injured among a crowd of 22,000 at a country music festival.
The Bucks are in Las Vegas for Tuesday’s NBA Cup tournament championship game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
— Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Tim Reynolds and Ed White contributed to this report.