Parent of student who knew family of deceased: 'My heart's breaking'
James and Rebekah Smith, parents of a 17-year-old junior who was taking a physics class down the hall when the shooting occurred, told NBC Newsthey know a lot of the people involved in the tragedy.
"My heart’s breaking," Rebekah Smith said. "I can't imagine what that would feel like."
She noted that Abundant Life Christian School has lockdowns and "train[s] every month for this."
Asked whether she wants to see more security at the school, she said: "Do we want our kids to think they're at a security checkpoint at an airport coming to school every day? That's a hard one to answer."
James Smith said he trusts the school and the administration to make decisions that are safe for all students and recognizes that it's going to take time.
"It's how we build from here, how we heal from this time as a community," he said. "There's going to be a lot of counsel needed for all involved, the whole community, just time to grieve, space to find out what all of this means for us and to be able to give grace to the family of the perpetrator."
Former principal of Abundant Life: 'My heart is broken with them'
David Wagner, who was principal of Abundant Life Christian School for 16 years until 1998, said “it was a shock” to learn about the shooting at the school he once led.
“My three kids went there, my wife taught there. … At first I thought it must be wrong. It must not be Abundant Life Christian School, my school in Madison," Wagner told NBC News.
"A shooting — it can be anywhere, it can be at a mall, it can be at a home — is a tragedy," he said. "But when it gets to your school, at your place, then all of a sudden you put names into the situation, you put faces into the situation, people that you know. That’s when it really hits home.
“It was unbelievable, just unbelievable. It just broke my heart to think about that,” he added.
Wagner said the school was a close-knit community when he led it. He said he hired the current principal and still knows teachers there.
He said that in his time leading the school, there was no protocol for shootings, as they weren’t as prevalent, and he called their proliferation “a tragedy in itself.”
“Leaving in 1998, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of a school shooting at that time. That was not part of our preparation or protocol,” he said. “We did all the fire drills, tornado drills and other safety drills. We worked together with the police department, the fire department, just to make sure that our building had all the necessary means for those kinds of situations.”
His message to the community is to “persevere” and “continue to hold their faith.”
“This is a tragic situation that will bring change to not only the school, but to everybody who is a part of that family,” Wagner said. “My heart is with you. I grieve. My heart is broken with them.” He urged community members to “wrap their hearts around those who need a hug and to share a word of encouragement to those around them.”
Flags in Wisconsin to be flown at half-staff, governor says
Flags will be flown at half-staff until Sunday at sunset, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said on X.
Evers said flags will be lowered to "honor those whose lives were taken and forever changed yesterday, pray for the full recoveries of those injured, and mourn with and support the Abundant Life Christian School community."
Less than 5% of school shooters in the past decade were female
Out of 544 school shootings over an 11-year period, less than 5% of the shooters were female, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit group that advocates for stronger gun laws. The group flagged that the shooter's gender is not always available, making the data incomplete.
MSNBC analyst Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant director of the FBI for counterintelligence, corroborated the statistic, telling MSNBC's Jose Diaz-Balart today that officials are trying to track the serial number of the gun that was used to determine where the suspected shooter got it.
He also said the FBI will be looking for flags indicating that such an event would occur.
“It's rare that there’s no clues or indicators, especially with a teenager,” Figliuzzi said.
Police to hold news conference this afternoon
Police will provide details about the shooting at a news conference scheduled for 1 p.m. local time, 2 p.m. ET.
'This great nation is behind us,' school says after shooting
Abundant Life Christian School said it has been "flooded with thoughts & prayers" following a shooting Monday at the school.
"This great nation is behind us. So grateful for the tsunami of prayers for our students, staff, & families," the school said in a Facebook statement on Monday night.
"Prayers Requested! Today, we had an active shooter incident at ALCS," the school said in an earlier statement. "Please pray for our Challenger Family."
The shooting happened during the last week of school before Christmas break, which was scheduled to begin on Dec. 23.
3 dead, 6 injured in Wisconsin elementary school mass shooting
A teacher and student are dead and six others are wounded after another student opened fire inside a study hall classroom at a Madison, Wisconsin, elementary school on Monday. The shooter, who died from what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was a 15-year-old girl, police say. NBC’s Shaquille Brewster reports for TODAY.
Who is the shooter?
Police identified the suspected shooter as 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who went by Samantha, a student at Abundant Life.
She died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. She died en route to a hospital, the chief said. The county medical examiner will make an official determination of the cause and manner of death, he said.
Police said a motive was not clear.
Investigators have talked to the shooter’s family and searched the home, Barnes said. Her parents are “fully cooperating,” Barnes said.
A handgun was recovered, said Barnes, who did not provide additional details about it.
Who are the victims?
A teenage student and a teacher were fatally shot, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. He has not provided additional details about them.
It was not clear if the student at teacher were targets, police said.
Two of the injured students are in critical condition, and four were recovering from non-life-threatening injuries, he said.
Where did the shooting happen?
Abundant Life Christian School is a private academy located east of downtown Madison. It was founded in 1978 and teaches kindergarten through 12th grade to roughly 335 students.
The shooting happened in a classroom during study hall, the chief said, adding that students in a variety of grade levels were in the room.