Police in Wisconsin on Tuesday were interviewing friends and family and examining the online presence of a 15-year-old girl to determine what drove her to open fire in a school classroom, killing a fellow student and a teacher before taking her own life.
The teenager who carried out the shooting, identified by police as Natalie Rupnow, who also went by the name Samantha, was a student at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital. Only about 3 per cent of all US mass shootings are perpetrated by females, studies show.
Police have yet to determine a motive. Madison Police chief Shon Barnes told CNN on Tuesday that investigators are looking into online posts and a possible manifesto that the shooter may have left behind.
“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,” Mr Barnes said.
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Mr Barnes said police are also examining her cell phone and computer to see if there were any transmissions between her and someone else. Other questions investigators are trying to answer are how the 15-year-old obtained a gun and whether her parents were negligent.
“That’s a question that we’ll have to answer with our district attorney’s office,” Mr Barnes said. “But at this time, that does not appear to be the case.”
Two wounded students were in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, while several other victims were wounded and expected to survive.
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. 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 US constitutional protection for gun owners. – Reuters
US authorities believe a 15-year-old girl carried out a school shooting in the state of Wisconsin in which three people died.
Wisconsin police confirmed her identity as Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha. She was a pupil at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison.
The latest US school gun attack to rock the United States left a teacher and another teenager dead, as well as the 15-year-old.
Madison Police chief Shon Barnes said that it was a second-grade student who made the initial call to report the shooting to authorities just before 11am.
“I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas,” Mr Barnes 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.”
Police said the person who opened fire was dead when officers arrived.
A spokeswoman for SSM Health said two patients injured in the Monday attack have already been discharged, adding that two others remain in stable at a nearby hospital.
Two students remained in critical condition at a different hospital, according to the Madison Police chief.
Abundant Life is a non-denominational Christian school, from nursery to secondary school, with some 390 students in Madison, the state capital.
After the shooting, students were led next door to City Church where buses took them elsewhere to be reunited with families. Nine schools in Madison were locked down for a few hours as a precaution.
“As difficult as today is, that’s still someone’s child that’s gone,” the police chief said. A motive for the shooting was not immediately known, he added.
“I don’t know why, and I feel like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” Mr Barnes said.
Someone from the school called police to report an active shooter shortly before 11am. Emergency services personnel who were in training just three miles away went to the school, Mr Barnes said.
Investigators believe the weapon used was a 9mm pistol, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press.
“I’m not aware that the school had metal detectors nor should schools have metal detectors. It’s a safe space,” Mr Barnes said.
Police blocked off roads around the school. Federal agents were at the scene to assist local law enforcement.
Abundant Life asked for prayers in a brief Facebook post.
Bethany Highman, the mother of a student, went to the school and learned over FaceTime that her daughter was safe.
“As soon as it happened, your world stops for a minute. Nothing else matters,” Ms Highman said. “There’s nobody around you. You just bolt for the door and try to do everything you can as a parent to be with your kids.”
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.
“As a father, a grandfather, and as governor, it is unthinkable that a kid or an educator might wake up and go to school one morning and never come home,” Wisconsin governor Tony Evers said.
“This should never happen, and I will never accept this as a foregone reality or stop working to change it.”
It was the latest among dozens of school shootings across the US 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 heightened the concerns of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to doing active 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 non-profit organisation that researches healthcare issues. – Associated Press