A 15-year-old student opened fire inside a study hall at a small Christian school in Wisconsin (USA), killing a teacher, fellow student and wounding six others on Monday.
Of the six injured in the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, two students were in critical condition, Madison police chief Shon Barnes said. A teacher and three students were taken to a hospital with less serious injuries, and two of them were later released.
“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 said the shooter, identified as Natalie Rupnow, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound when officers arrived and died en route to a hospital. Barnes declined to offer additional details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school — prekindergarten through high school — with approximately 420 students in Madison, the state capital.
Barbara Wiers, the school’s director of elementary and school relations, said when they practice safety routines, leaders always announce that it’s a drill. That didn’t happen Monday, just a week before Christmas break.
“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, nor was it clear if the victims were targeted, Barnes said.
“I don’t know why, and I feel like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” he told media sources.
Barnes said police were talking with the shooter’s father and other family members, who were cooperating, and searching the shooter’s home.
“He lost someone as well,” Barnes said of the shooter’s father. “And so we’re not going to rush the information. We’ll take our time and make sure we do our due diligence.”
The first 911 call to report an active shooter came in shortly before 11 a.m. First responders who were in training just 3 miles (about 5 kilometers) away dashed to the school for an actual emergency, Barnes said. They arrived three minutes after the initial call.
Investigators believe the shooter used a 9 mm pistol, a law enforcement official told media sources on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Police blocked off roads aground the school, and federal agents were at the scene to assist local law enforcement. No shots were fired by police.
Children and families were reunited at a health clinic about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the school. Parents pressed children against their chests while others squeezed hands and shoulders as they walked side by side.
Abundant Life asked for prayers in a brief Facebook post. Wiers said they’re still deciding whether they will resume classes this week.
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 traumatises children, their families, and tears entire communities apart,” Biden said. He spoke with Wisconsin governor 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 is the latest among dozens across the US in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
The school shootings have set off fervent debates about gun control but have done little to move the needle on national gun laws.
According to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues, firearms were the leading cause of death among children in 2020 and 2021.
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.
Source: Associated Press
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