A student opened fire at a private Christian school in the state of Wisconsin, injuring six people and killing a teacher and a young student.
Madison Police Chief Sean Barnes identified the attacker Monday night as a 15-year-old female student at the school.
Authorities say the attacker was a student at Abundant Life Christian School before opening fire and was found dead at the scene. Six students were injured, including two who received life-threatening injuries.
“Today is a sad day not only for Madison, but for our entire country,” said Chief Barnes. “We have to do a better job in our community.”
He also pointed out that the police have not yet identified the cause of the shooting, the suspect’s family is cooperating with the investigation.
He named the suspect as Natalie Rupnow – who he also called Samantha – and is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Chief Barnes said the second grader was the first to call in the incident.
Police responded to a 911 call of an active shooter at the Christian school around 11:00 local time (17:00GMT) on Monday. The attacker was attending school before the shooting, Chief Barnes said.
The shooting was confined to a classroom with different students.
Barbara Wiers, director of public relations at the school, said the school trained shooters earlier this year and the information was “too new” for teachers to use on Monday.
He said that although the school does not have a dedicated police officer, known as the school officer, the doors of all classrooms are locked and anyone who wants to enter the campus must be heard to enter the elementary school gate.
Ms. Wiers, who said she was teaching when she was attacked, said the students held their own.
“It was clear that they were scared,” he said. “When they heard ‘lockdown, lockdown’ and nothing else, they knew it was true.”
The police said they found the shooter dead when he arrived at the school with a gun. No police fired their weapons.
The police have not released the names of the dead.
Chief Barnes said two students are in critical condition at the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Four others were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, two of whom have since been released.
Authorities have urged witnesses who saw or heard the attack to come forward and speak to the police, and hope the news will shed light on the attacker’s motive.
“But that’s not something we want to rush into. We’re not going to investigate the students,” said Chief Barnes. “We will give them the opportunity to come in and tell us what they saw when they are ready.”
He added that “always child, everyone in that building is a victim and will forever be a victim”.
The king said the police responded to the school while they were being trained at a law enforcement training center three kilometers away.
“What started as a training day turned into a real day,” he said.
The shooting led to a massive emergency response. Madison Fire Chief Chris Carbon said 15 ambulances are responding.
FBI officials also responded, along with other federal and local law enforcement officials.
Abundant Life Christian School has approximately 400 students from kindergarten through high school.
“Please pray for our Challenger family,” the school wrote in a Facebook post. The post quickly received hundreds of comments of support from people across the US.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said he is monitoring the situation closely and praying for everyone involved. He also ordered flags to be flown at the top of government buildings.
President Joe Biden said in a statement that the shooting was “shocking and unconscionable”.
“Students in our country need to learn to read and write – they don’t need to learn to duck and shut,” said Biden, who also called on Congress to act quickly on legislation that would prevent the rise of gun violence.
Shootings are common in the US, and schools are no exception.
The 12 Violence Project, a non-profit organization working to reduce violence through accessible and actionable research, has predicted more than 300 shootings by 2024. This includes incidents where a firearm is discharged or fired, or a bullet strikes school property for any reason. , regardless of the number of victims.
According to the news organization EducationWeek, 38 school shootings have resulted in death or injury across the US this year. There were 69 victims – including 16 deaths – before today’s incident.
Female mass shootings are not very common, however. School shootings by female attackers are not uncommon.
In a blog post last year, K-12 School Shooting Database founder David Riedman he wrote that most school shooters are young men in their early 20s. However, at least four planned school shootings have been female assailants since 1979.
Source link
