What we know so far about the shooting
- Three people are dead after a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, a Madison, Wisconsin, campus for grades K-12.
- A teacher and a teenage student were killed, police said.
- Officials said the shooter was a 15-year-old female student at the school.
- Six other people were injured, two students were in critical condition, and a teacher and three other students had non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
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Police swarmed teen's neighborhood shortly after shooting, neighbors say
A resident of the same neighborhood as the teenage school shooter said that at about 1 this afternoon, just hours after the gunfire on campus, police arrived at the 15-year-old's home.
He said he saw at least 10 police cars and dozens of officers, in addition to a SWAT truck that arrived on his neighbor’s front lawn.
Residents reported flash-bangs in the neighborhood in north Madison, and the neighbor said he and his wife went to their basement. “After the first boom, that’s when we’re like, oh, we probably shouldn’t be up here," he said.
The couple remained in the basement for about 45 minutes. They said officers came to their door to provide an update and give the all-clear.
Shooting happened in classroom during study hall
The shooting occurred in a classroom during study hall, police said.
The study hall had students in mixed grades when the 15-year-old female student opened fire, Barnes said.
Document online being examined for authenticity
Madison police investigating today’s shooting are aware of a document online and are looking into it to learn more, Barnes said.
“A document about this shooting is circulating at this time on social media, but we have not verified its authenticity,” Barnes said.
Police are working to determine the motive, he said.
Police have spoken to the shooter’s parents, and they are fully cooperative, he said. Police are also searching the shooter’s home, he said.
Madison police chief addresses online rumors
Madison’s chief of police was asked about comments online that suggest the shooter may have been trans.
“I don’t know whether Natalie was transgender or not,” Barnes said at a news conference tonight.
“I don’t think that whatever happened today has anything to do with how she or he or they may have wanted to identify,” he said. “And I wish people would kind of leave their own personal biases out of this.”
Barnes said a motive is under investigation. The shooter, who is dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, has been identified by Barnes as Natalie Rupnow.
He said he has seen things on social media that “frankly are incorrect, that are not true.”
“So, 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 is of no consequence at this time,” Barnes said.
“And so I would encourage people to be responsible with your social media,” he said.
2nd grader called 911 about shooting at school
Update Dec. 17, 2024: Barnes said Tuesday that it was a second-grade teacher who made the 911 call, not a student. Please click here for the latest updates.
A second grade student called 911 at 10:57 a.m. to report the shooting, the police chief said.
“Let that soak in for a minute,” Barnes said at a news conference this evening. “A second grade student called 911 at 10:57 a.m. to report a shooting at school.”
A teacher and a teenage student were killed, and the shooter, who was 15 years old, died of what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, he said.
Six other students and a teacher were also injured, Barnes said. Two injured students remain in critical condition tonight, he said.
Shooter was a 15-year-old female student
The person who opened fire at a Madison, Wisconsin, school today was a 15-year-old female student, the police chief said tonight.
Barnes said Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha, died en route to a hospital of what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Barnes said. The county medical examiner will make an official determination of the cause and manner of death, he said.
A motive is still under investigation, Barnes said.
Investigators have talked to the shooter’s family and searched the home, Barnes said. The parents are "fully cooperating," Barnes said.
School shootings are preventable, police say
Madison’s police chief late this afternoon called on the public to report troubling behaviors that could lead to violence like today’s school shooting.
“Pre-planned or planned shootings, we believe, are preventable,” Barnes said at a late afternoon news conference. “If you see warning behaviors from someone that is planning an attack, say something, do something.”
A motive in the shooting, which killed two people, is under investigation. The shooter, described as a teenager, is also dead.
“Targeted violence is preventable,” said Trish Kilpin, director of the office of school safety with the Wisconsin Justice Department. “When somebody conducts a school shooting, they don’t snap. They don’t just decide one day to engage in this egregious behavior.
“Instead, they make a decision and start research and planning toward an act of violence,” she said. “And when they’re on that pathway to violence, they often demonstrate observable behaviors that others notice.”
Kilpin said that in 82% of cases, someone else knows about a shooter’s plans to attack a school.
Police confirm activity at home related to shooting investigation
At a news briefing this evening, the police chief confirmed that police activity at a home in Madison’s north side was related to the investigation into this morning's school shooting.
Officers at a home on Delaware Boulevard this evening said a search warrant had been executed there.
Neighbors confirmed the police activity at the home, which by this evening had no front door.
Neighbors told NBC affiliate WTMJ of Milwaukee that police threw two flash-bang devices at the home, one through the door and one through the window.
Neighbor says he saw students evacuate as police approached school with guns drawn
John Diaz de Leon II was home watching TV around 11 a.m. when suddenly he heard police and ambulance sirens in the otherwise quiet neighborhood.
De Leon and his wife live about a block from Abundant Life Christian School, which their children attended when they were young. They decided to build their home near the school in the late 1980s after having met with school officials and decided Abundant Life felt like a great fit for their growing family.
But today, he knew something wasn't right when "not one, not two, but three and then more" sirens approached the neighborhood.
De Leon saw dozens of students evacuating the school when he stepped outside, he said. The older students walked quickly across the parking lot toward a church, while younger students held hands as school personnel led them outside.
He also saw two police officers with what he described as "long guns" approach the school with dogs by their sides.
"This is the last school in Madison you would have thought this would happen," he said. "The threat has passed, but it ain’t over."
Students 'clearly scared' but followed lockdown procedure
Students told to lock down after today’s shooting knew the situation was not a drill and “handled themselves magnificently,” a school official said.
“They were clearly scared. ... When we practice we always say, ‘This a drill, this is just a drill,’” Barbara Wiers, the school’s director of elementary and school relations, said at an evening news conference.
“When they heard ‘lockdown, lockdown’ and nothing else, they knew it was real, and they handled themselves brilliantly,” she said.
Wiers said that she was teaching at the time and that after the alert she worked to secure the door and move the children to a safe part of the room.