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The teen girl who fatally shot a student and teacher and left two more pupils clinging to life at a private Christian school in Madison, Wis., on Monday has been identified.
Police said Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, a 15-year-old student at the K-12 Abundant Life Christian School, brought a handgun to campus and opened fire around 11 a.m. inside a classroom during study hall.
The teenage student and teacher were pronounced dead at the scene while another teacher and five more students were wounded. Two of the students are in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said Monday night.
Rupnow sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital, Barnes said.
An alleged manifesto espousing angry, hateful views is circulating online that some social media users claim belonged to Rupnow — but Barnes said police have not yet been able to confirm that document.
“We haven’t been able to verify that it’s authentic, we’re certainly aware that it’s been posted,” he said, adding his department is working with the FBI to investigate the writings.
SWAT teams raided Rupnow’s family’s home on Monday night, busting through the front door and conducting a thorough search inside, WISN reported.
The home is about eight miles from the K-12 school, which is in the state capital, has little more than 400 students.
Rupnow opened fire inside a classroom during a study hall filled with students from different grades.
As the gunfire erupted, a second-grader in a nearby classroom called 911 for help, and police were on the scene in about three minutes, according to Barnes.
Investigators are still working to determine a motive, and have been interviewing the shooter’s father, Barnes said.
At this point, he said there is no reason to believe her parents committed a crime.
Barnes questioned how Rupnow was able to get her hands on the gun leading up to the deadly school shooting.
“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.
Barnes also addressed speculation online that the shooter was transgender in response to a question, but he stressed how the shooter’s identity was not important.
“Whether or not she was, he was, they were transgender is something that may come out later, but for what we’re doing right now, today, literally eight hours after a mass shooting in a school in Madison, it of no consequence at this time,” he said.
A school official, Barbara Wiers, earlier Monday evening, lauded students that “handled themselves magnificently” during the chaos.
President Biden called for “commonsense” gun control measures in the face of more bloodshed inside an American school.
“From Newtown to Uvalde, Parkland to Madison, to so many other shootings that don’t receive attention – it is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence. We cannot continue to accept it as normal,” he said in a statement.
“Every child deserves to feel safe in their class room. Students across our country should be learning how to read and write – not having to learn how to duck and cover.”
With Post wires