3 dead, including suspect, in shooting at Madison’s Abundant Life Christian School

At least three people died in a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison on Monday.

Those who died include the shooter, whom Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes identified as Natalie Rupnow, a 15-year-old student at the school, who went by the name of Samantha.

Rupnow died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Barnes said.

The other two fatalities are a teacher and a teenage student. They have not yet been named.

Barnes said at least six additional people were injured. During a 8:30 p.m. press conference, Barnes said two students remain in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.  Three other students and one teacher with non-life threatening injuries received care at area hospitals — two of them had been released Monday evening.

Rupnow’s family is cooperating, Barnes said. He said her father is at a police department facility and is working with officers.

“He lost someone as well,” Barnes said. “We’re not going to rush the information. We’ll take our time.”

Barnes said Rupnow was the only shooter involved. The incident took place just before 11 a.m. in a mixed-grade study hall.

At 10:57 a.m., a second grade teacher called 911 to report a shooting. On Monday, Barnes erroneously stated a second grade student had made that call, correcting that information the following day.

Barnes said the first officer entered the building about three minutes after the initial 911 call. By 11:05 a.m., Barnes said, the shooter was down and a gun had been recovered.

He said the teacher and student who were killed were pronounced dead at the scene. Rupnow died while being taken to a hospital.

“Many of you have asked me about the why of this. Why did this happen? What do we know? What was the motivation?” Barnes said. “I do not know, but I will tell you this: our detectives are working hard in the investigative process to find out as many answers as we can so that we can further prevent these things from happening, not only in this community, but in other communities around our country.”

Barnes said he could not confirm the authenticity of a manifesto that’s been circulating on social media.

Police said the student is believed to have been at school at the beginning of the day, and did not breach the school after lessons began.

Barnes said Rupnow’s family’s home on the north side of Madison has been searched with their consent. There was a large police presence at the home Monday afternoon.

Barnes said officers are still trying to determine how Rupnow obtained the handgun used in the shooting.

“How does any 15-year-old get a hold of a gun? Or anyone for that matter?” he said. “You get into the philosophical question about guns and gun safety and that is something we should all be talking to our loved ones about. That is something that will be part of this investigation.”

‘Who’s prepared for any of this?’: Parents reunite with children

A reunification center was set up at the SSM Health clinic on Stoughton Road for school families to join their children. That process for students had finished by 5:45 p.m. Monday. Barnes said some teachers and staff were still being reunited with their loved ones as of Monday evening.

Mireille Jean-Charles has three sons who attend Abundant Life: a ninth grader and a set of twins in sixth grade. 

She headed to the school as soon as she heard about the shooting and was reunited with her sons late Monday afternoon after hours of waiting.

She said the first thing they did was hug and cry. She expects they’ll be processing the trauma together as a family for a long time.

“I don’t know what to say because we always send prayers, we always send thoughts, and then when are we going to stop doing that?” Jean-Charles said.

“This is not OK. If your kids are at school, they are not OK. If they are at church, they are not OK. If they are outside elsewhere, they are not OK. Where, where are they going to be safe?” she continued.

Bethany Highman’s daughter also attends Abundant Life. Speaking to reporters Monday afternoon outside the reunification center, Highman said she was able to talk to her daughter on the phone but had not yet been able to see her.

“I just want to make sure that she’s in the right mindset and she’s mature enough to be able to understand and really grasp the concept,” Highman said.

“Who’s prepared for any of this?” she added. “I don’t know what to do. I’m gonna just gather with community, family, with my daughter.”

During the 5:45 p.m. press conference, Barbara Wiers, director of elementary and school relations at Abundant Life, said the school currently serves 420 students in pre-kindergarten through high school. The school is part of Impact Christian Schools, a network of six private Christian schools in central Wisconsin. The school campus is surrounded by homes in the East Buckeye neighborhood.

“We see ourselves as a family, not just a community,” Weirs said.

Weirs said teachers and students at the school are well-versed in active shooter drills and did a training exercise with Madison Police Department at the beginning of the year.

“When we practice, we always say, ‘This is a drill, it is just a drill,’” Weirs said. “When they heard ‘lockdown, lockdown’ and nothing else, they knew it was real.”

She said students handled the situation “brilliantly.”

The school does not have metal detectors, but Weirs said the school has recently used grants from Wisconsin’s office of school safety to “harden” its security protocol.

There are surveillance cameras in the building, and staff do a “visual scan” of students as they enter the building by looking them up and down to see if they’re carrying anything “unusual,” Weirs said.

‘This should never happen’: Officials react to shooting

Hours after the shooting, President Joe Biden called on Congress to act to combat school shootings.

“From Newtown to Uvalde, Parkland to Madison, to so many other shootings that don’t receive attention — it is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence,” Biden wrote. “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.”

Gov. Tony Evers called the shooting devastating in a statement Monday afternoon.

“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,” he said.

“Today 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,” Evers continued.

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said she hoped “this day would never come in Madison” during the 2:30 p.m. press conference.

“This is an incredibly sad day for our community,” Rhodes-Conway said. “As you’ve heard, there is no danger to the community at this time. But our entire community has been impacted by this tragic incident.”

State Superintendent Jill Underly released a statement Monday, mourning the victims. 

“No community should ever face the pain of losing children, teachers, or friends to violence — especially in our schools,” she wrote. “This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to protect our children and our educators to ensure that such horrors never happen again. We will not rest until we find solutions that make our schools safe, and so our children feel secure.”

Monday’s shooting is at least the fifth time this year that gunfire took place at a Wisconsin school, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group. That includes the attempted shooting in May at Mount Horeb Middle School, 25 miles southwest of Madison, in which police killed a student with a pellet gun before he entered the school building.

According to a CNN analysis, there have been at least 83 school shootings across the country this year, including 56 at K-12 schools, with at least 38 fatalities.

Other schools in the area were put on security holds during the investigation. At 2:15 p.m., the Madison Metropolitan School District emailed parents saying all schools had lifted their security protocols and that classes would resume as normal on Tuesday. Schools in the Monona Grove School District were dismissed at the normal time after schools near Abundant Life were secured for much of the day Monday.

Police encourage the public to avoid the area along 4900 Buckeye Road in Madison.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the suicide prevention lifeline at 988 or text “Hopeline” to 741741.

Editor’s note: WPR’s Corrinne Hess, Shawn Johnson, Sarah Lehr, Angela Major, Jenny Peek, Deneen Smith and Anya van Wagtendonk contributed reporting to this story.

Editor’s note: This story has been changed to reflect that a second grade teacher made the initial 911 call. Police reported Monday that a second grade student had made that call, then provided revised information the following day.