A 15-year-old student opened fire inside a study hall at a small Christian school in Wisconsin, killing a teacher and teenager and prompting a swarm of police officers responding to a second grader’s 911 call.
The female student wounded six others during the December 16 shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, including two students who were in critical condition, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. A teacher and three students were taken to a hospital with less serious injuries, and two of them were later released.
“Every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever. … We need to figure out and try to piece together what exactly happened,” Barnes said.
Police said the shooter, identified as Natalie Rupnow, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound when officers arrived and died en route to a hospital. Barnes declined to offer additional details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school, prekindergarten through high school, with approximately 420 students in the state capital of Madison.
The school’s website said it was founded in 1978 “to offer students academic excellence in a Christ-focused context.” The website said the school is accredited through the Association of Christian Schools International.
Barbara Wiers, the school’s director of elementary and school relations, said when they practice safety routines, leaders always announce that it is a drill. That did not happen on December 16, just a week before Christmas break.
“When they heard, ‘Lockdown, lockdown,’ they knew it was real,” she said.
Wiers said the school does not have metal detectors but uses other security measures including cameras.
A motive for the shooting was not immediately known, nor was it clear if the victims were targeted, Barnes said.
“I don’t know why, and I feel like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” he told reporters.
Barnes said police were talking with the shooter’s father and other family members, who were cooperating, and searching the shooter’s home.
“He lost someone as well,” Barnes said of the shooter’s father. “And so we’re not going to rush the information. We’ll take our time and make sure we do our due diligence.”
The first 911 call to report an active shooter came in shortly before 11:00 a.m. First responders who were in training just 3 miles away dashed to the school for an actual emergency, Barnes said. They arrived three minutes after the initial call.
Investigators believe the shooter used a 9mm pistol, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Police blocked off roads around the school, and federal agents were at the scene to assist local law enforcement. No shots were fired by police.
Children and families were reunited at a health clinic about a mile from the school. Parents pressed children against their chests while others squeezed hands and shoulders as they walked side by side.
Abundant Life asked for prayers in a brief Facebook post. Wiers said they were still deciding whether they will resume classes this week.
Bethany Highman, the mother of a student, rushed to the school and learned over FaceTime that her daughter was OK.
“As soon as it happened, your world stops for a minute. Nothing else matters,” Highman said. “There’s nobody around you. You just bolt for the door and try to do everything you can as a parent to be with your kids.”
The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting and officials were in touch with local authorities to provide support. President Joe Biden cited the tragedy in calling on Congress to pass universal background checks, a national red flag law, and certain gun restrictions.
“We can never accept senseless violence that traumatizes children, their families, and tears entire communities apart,” Biden said. He spoke with Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and offered his support.
Governor Evers ordered the flags of the United States and the state of Wisconsin to half-staff across the state immediately until sunset on December 22, 2024, with an executive order to follow.
“As a father, a grandfather, and as governor, it is unthinkable that a kid or an educator might wake up and go to school one morning and never come home. This should never happen, and I will never accept this as a foregone reality or stop working to change it,” said Governor Evers. “My focus is on supporting these families and kids and the Abundant Life community, and the state stands ready to support them and the efforts of local law enforcement through what will undoubtedly be difficult days ahead.”
The school shooting was the latest among dozens across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
The shootings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to doing active shooter drills in their classrooms. But school shootings have done little to move the needle on national gun laws.
Firearms were the leading cause of death among children in 2020 and 2021, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues.
“While we await further details of this tragedy, Forward Latino calls on the Wisconsin State Legislature to convene for the purposes of passing commonsense gun violence reform measures that are overwhelmingly supported by Wisconsin’s gun owners and non-gun owners,” said Darryl Morin, National President of Forward Latino. These measures include passing legislation that will require universal background checks on all gun sales, and allow for members of law enforcement as well as family members to petition a court for an Extreme Risk Protection Order otherwise known as a red flag law when, and individual with a firearm is deemed an imminent threat to themselves or others, and lastly to require all firearms be stored safely so that unauthorized users are denied access. These commonsense reforms are proven to help prevent gun violence.”
Morin added that Forward Latino stood ready to work with all members of the Wisconsin legislature to help pass the reforms that would stop preventable acts of gun violence.
Rhodes-Conway said the country needs to do more to prevent gun violence.
“I hoped that this day would never come to Madison,” she said.
The shooting comes less than two weeks after a gunman critically wounded two kindergartners at a tiny religious school in Northern California and then killed himself. Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said Glenn Litton was mentally ill and believed that by targeting children on December 4. He was carrying out “counter-measures” in response to America’s involvement in Middle East violence.
The website for the anti-violence organization Everytown for Gun Safety shows that there have been at least 202 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 56 deaths and 147 injuries, in 2024. That data does not include the latest shooting in Madison.
The deadliest school shooting in 2024 happened in September at Apalachee High School in Georgia. Authorities said 14-year-old student Colt Gray opened fire with a semiautomatic assault-style rifle. Four people were killed and nine more were hurt, seven of them shot. A grand jury subsequently indicted Gray and his father Colin Gray — who was accused of giving his son access to the gun — on murder and other charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Last year, 45 people died in 158 school shootings, the Everytown for Gun Safety website shows. Sixty-seven people died in 181 school shootings in 2022, according to the data.
