A 15-year-old girl is responsible for the shooting at a Wisconsin Christian school that killed a teacher and student and wounded several others before she took her own life, police have confirmed.
The shooter was identified as Abundant Life Christian School student Natalie Rupnow at a press conference Monday night. Police say the attacker also used the first name Samantha.
Madison police Chief Shon Barnes told reporters Rupnow was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound when officers arrived at the school, and died en route to hospital.
Six others were wounded after she opened fire in a mixed-grades study hall, including two students who remain in critical condition. A teacher and three other students were taken to hospital with less serious injuries and two had been released by Monday evening.
While police originally said it was a student in the second grade who called 911, resulting in dozens of police officers rushing to the scene, Barnes clarified on Tuesday afternoon that it was a second grade teacher that placed the call.
Barbara Wiers, director of elementary and school relations for Abundant Life Christian School, told The Associated Press that the students “handled themselves magnificently.”
She said that when the school practices safety routines, which the faculty 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.
The 911 call came just before 11 a.m. on Monday. First responders were in training just five kilometres away and hurried to the scene for an actual emergency, making it to the school three minutes later.
Investigators believe the shooter used a 9 mm pistol, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. Police confirmed they found a handgun at the scene.
On Tuesday, police said they are looking into online posts and a possible manifesto left behind by the shooter. They said her motive remains unclear, and they are trying to determine whether the teacher and student killed during Monday’s shooting were singled out by the assailant.
“We have been made aware of a manifesto, if you want to call it that, or some type of letter that’s been posted by someone who alleged to be her friend. We haven’t been able to locate that person yet, but that’s something we’re going to work on today,” Barnes told CNN.
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“We’ll also be looking through her effects — if she had a computer or cell phone — to see if there are any transmissions between her and someone else.”
Barnes said Rupnow’s family is co-operating with the investigation.
President Joe Biden said the shooting was “shocking and unconscionable,” and called on lawmakers to act immediately on legislation that could prevent more gun violence.
According to a Washington Post database, school shootings carried out by women and girls are exceedingly rare; since 1999, only nine attacks have happened at the hands of women.
School shootings have been a macabre routine in the United States, with 322 of them this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database website, which tracks any type of shooting that happens on a school property, including gang shootings, domestic violence, shootings at sports games and after-hours school events, suicides, fights that escalate into shootings, and accidents.
That is the second-highest total of any year since 1966, according to that database — topped only by last year’s total of 349 such shootings.
Polling shows American voters favour stronger background checks on gun buyers, temporary limits on people in crisis and more safety requirements for gun storage at homes with children. Yet political leaders have largely declined to act, citing the U.S. constitutional protection for gun owners.
— With files from Reuters and The Associated Press
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