Wisconsin school shooter used 1 of 2 guns on himself, police chief says

The gunman at a religious school in Wisconsin had two guns but only used one in the attack that killed a teacher and a student and wounded six others, the city's police chief told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Police are still investigating why a 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed another student and a teacher Monday, before turning the gun on himself, Madison Police Chief Sean Barnes said.

Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition Wednesday.

“We may never know what he was thinking that day, but we will do our best to try to add or provide as much information to our community as possible,” Barnes said.

The student who was killed was identified in an affidavit released Wednesday as Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, of Madison. He was a freshman and “an ardent student, loved the arts, sang and played keyboard in the family worship band,” according to the obituary.

The name of the slain teacher has not been released.

Barnes released the name of the shooter, Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, hours after the shooting Monday.

Barnes said the medical examiner will release the names of those killed, but state law prohibits the release of the names of the injured.

Police, with the help of the FBI, were checking online records and other resources and talking to the attacker's parents and classmates to try to determine a motive, Barnes said.

The police do not know if there was a target or if the attack was planned in advance, he said.

Although Rupnow had two guns, Barnes said he did not know how he got them and declined to say who bought them, citing the ongoing investigation.

No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow's parents may face charges in connection with the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes said.

Online court records show no criminal charges against his father, Jeffrey Rupnow, or his mother, Mellissa Rupnow. They are divorced and share custody of their daughter, but she has primarily lived with her father, according to court documents. Divorce records show Natalie was in treatment in 2022, but can't say why.

Female shooters are rare

The shooting was the latest among dozens across the US in recent years, including particularly deadly ones in Newtown, Conn.; Parkland, Fla.; and Uvalde, Texas.

But Madison's attack is an outlier since only about 3 percent of all mass shootings in the US are committed by women, research shows.

School shootings have become commonplace in the United States, with 322 of them this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. That's the second-highest total in any year since 1966 – topped only by the previous year's 349.

School shootings by female teenagers have been rare in the US, with most of them being by men in their 20s, said David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database.

Emily Salisbury, an associate professor of social work at the University of Utah, studies crime and gender. He said women tend to turn their anger around because American culture has taught them that women don't hurt people, which leads to eating disorders, self-harm and depression.

It's hard to speculate without knowing all the facts about Rupnow's case, Salisbury said, but the girl's recourse to the level of violence she displayed suggests that she either experienced significant trauma or experienced violence herself.

“There needs to be more provocation, more encouragement for girls and women to be violent,” Salisbury said. “It is very likely that he experienced some form of violence in his life that could lead to serious mental illness.”

Abundant Life is a non-denominational Christian school – prekindergarten through high school – with about 420 students.

Salisbury said the public should not think that the school's religious teachings mean its students are above bullying and racism.

“It's the kids,” Salisbury said. “It is what it is [religious] values ​​that may be taught or discussed in the classroom in that school's culture, children are online all the time. Children create their own culture through social media.”