Three people are dead after a shooting on Monday at a private Christian school in Wisconsin – including the teenage shooter – and six others were wounded, according to local police.
The shooter was a 15-year-old female student, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press.
There was as yet no known motive for the violence, which authorities said took place in one space inside the school, the Abundant Life Christian school in Madison, the state capital. The shooter’s family was cooperating with the investigation, police said.
The shooter, identified as Natalie Rupnow, who also went by the name Samantha, was dead by apparent suicide when officers arrived, the Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, said. Barnes declined to give details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family.
Police initially said five people were dead after the shooting, but they later revised the death toll. According to Associated Press, the teenager killed a teacher and another teenage student.
Citing a law enforcement official, Associated Press reported that investigators believed the shooter carried out the attack at the school with a 9mm pistol.
“It’s a sad day for the community and for the country,” Barnes said at a briefing. “We have to do a little bit better.”
Barnes said on Monday night that the shooting, which occurred in study hall, was reported to police by a second-grader, who would generally be seven or eight years old. A 911 call shortly before 11am reported an active shooter situation, Barnes said. Police arrived three minutes after the initial call and went into the building immediately.
Barnes said police officers who responded did not fire their weapons. The shooter probably died by suicide, Barnes said.
Barnes later appealed for compassion for the shooter’s family, saying they were “still someone’s child”. The family is said to be cooperating with authorities.
The White House said in a statement that Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting and officials were in touch with local authorities to provide support. The Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, also has been briefed on the situation.
In a statement, Biden said the shooting was “shocking and unconscionable”, and he called on Congress to pass gun new control measures.
“We cannot continue to accept it as normal. Every child deserves to feel safe in their class room. Students across our country should be learning how to read and write – not having to learn how to duck and cover,” Biden said.
“Congress must pass commonsense gun safety laws: universal background checks. A national red flag law. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” he added.
The Abundant Life school has about 390 students, from kindergarten through high school, according to its website. It sits on a 28-acre campus that hosts students from about 200 families in the Dane county area.
Local TV footage of the scene outside the school showed dozens of police cars, ambulances and fire service vehicles pulling up in the streets outside the school.
“We are praying for the kids, educators, and entire Abundant Life school community as we await more information and are grateful for the first responders who are working quickly to respond,” Evers said in a statement.
A school shooting carried out by a girl remains a rarity, with only about 3% of all US mass shootings perpetrated by females, studies show.
The US has long had an epidemic of school shootings, on a scale unlike any other country in the world but has struggled with any meaningful efforts to curb the phenomenon, especially when it comes to limiting access to powerful firearms.
Monday’s shooting at Abundant Life Christian was among nearly 490 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are slain or wounded.
Among those cases was the 4 September shooting at Apalachee high school in Winder, Georgia, where four people – two students and two teachers – were killed and seven were injured. A 14-year-old former student was charged in connection with the murders. And so was his father, who was accused by authorities of giving the shooter access to a high-powered rifle and ammunition for it “after receiving sufficient warning that [the teen] would endanger the bodily safety of another”.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
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