A 15-year-old student believed to have shot and killed a teacher and fellow student along with injuring six other students and a teacher before killing herself at Madison’s Abundant Life Christian School was identified late Monday night.
Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow was identified as the shooter. She died on the way to the hospital.
A second-grade student called 911 to alert police of the shooting at 10:57 a.m.
“I’m going to let that soak in a minute,” Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said while informing the public of that news.
Police arrived at the school at 11:01 a.m. and immediately entered the building. They found the shooter down with what is believed to be a self-inflicted injury at 11:05 a.m.
Barnes said the Dane County Medical Examiner will announce the official cause of death at a later time.
“Today is a sad, sad day,” Barnes said. “Not only for Madison but our entire country.”
Six other students and a teacher were injured and taken to hospital. Four of them, a teacher and three students, had non-life-threatening injuries. Two students remain in the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Police said they are aware of writings attributed to the shooter that have been posted online but have not been able to confirm the authenticity of the writing.
Police have searched the shooter’s home and spoken with the shooter’s family, Barnes said. Police are still attempting to determine the source of the gun and the father was at a police facility Monday night being questioned, Barnes said.
Barnes said that the Madison Police train for school shootings quarterly, most recently two weeks ago.
Police did not fire their weapons.
