15-year-old girl identified as the shooter in a Wisconsin school

By Soumya Karlamangla and Isabelle Taft

The shooter who killed at least two people Monday at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, was identified as Natalie Rupnow, a 15-year-old female student who later died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

The shooter, who went by “Samantha,” opened fire in a study hall classroom with students from several grades at Abundant Life Christian School, said Shon F. Barnes, the Madison police chief.

Officers arrived after a second-grade teacher placed a 911 call to report the shooting, the chief said. (He had earlier said it was a student.)

A teacher and a teenage student were killed, and five students and another teacher were injured, authorities said. The shooter was found with a gunshot wound inside the school when police officers arrived and was pronounced dead soon after.

Barnes said there appeared to have been only one shooter, and investigators were looking for a possible motive. They had searched the suspect’s home in a north part of Madison and spoken to her family members, who were cooperating.

The police chief did not describe a motive, and he said investigators were still trying to find out more information.

“We’ll take our time and make sure that we do our due diligence,” Barnes said.

Young women are much less likely to be suspects in school shootings. This year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, nine shooting suspects were female compared with 249 who were male when gender was identified.

Abundant Life often served as a kind of refuge for children who had been bullied or struggled at other schools, because the staff were quick to put a stop to cruelty, said Rebekah Smith, 50, whose teenage daughter was in a physics class down the hall from where the shooting occurred.

Smith said that members of the school community believed the shooter was new to the private school this year and was among those who came in need of a life change. The school’s student population has grown dramatically since the pandemic, she said.

“You feel compassion for the parent who says, ‘Maybe this will help my child,’” Smith said. “I can’t even imagine what they’re feeling.”

Barnes said a handgun was recovered at the scene, but that police did not yet know the gun’s origin. Madison police were working with federal investigators to identify where and when it had been purchased.

“How does any 15-year-old get ahold of a gun?” Barnes said.

Two students with life-threatening injuries are in critical condition at a hospital, Barnes said. Four people — three students and a teacher — were hospitalized with less serious injuries, and two of them have been discharged, he said.