4 hours Ago
Determining a motive behind the Monday school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin, that killed three people, including the 15-year-old assailant, remains a “top priority,” authorities said Tuesday, noting that they are “working to authenticate” a purported manifesto circulating online. “It appears that the motive was a combination of factors,” with bullying among the angles being investigated, Madison Police Department Chief Shon Barnes said at a press conference following the incident at Abundant Life Christian School. “We’re looking into her online activity,” he said of the shooter, identified as student Natalie Rupnow.
Barnes added, “We’re asking anyone who knew her or who may have insights into her feelings leading up to yesterday to please contact the Madison Area Crime Stoppers ” — a nonprofit that seeks crime-solving tips. He said the shooting — which wounded six other people, two of whom remained in critical condition Tuesday — left the community with “a flurry of emotion: sadness, anger, disappointment, grief.” “Three families woke up this morning to a world without a loved one,” he said.
Police said Rupnow, who went by the first name Samantha, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after fatally shooting a teacher and another teen student. Addressing whether individuals were “specifically targeted” in the attack, Barnes said that “everyone was put in equal danger.” He also clarified that a 911 call placed during the rampage — earlier attributed to a second grade student — was actually placed by a second grade teacher.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, also speaking at the press conference, declined to publicly identify the victims when asked, telling reporters their loved ones need time and space to grieve. “It is absolutely none of y’all’s business who was harmed in this incident,” she said. “Please, have some human decency and respect for the people who lost loved ones or were injured themselves or whose children were injured.
” Barnes described the assailant’s parents as “cooperating” with law enforcement. It’s “far too early” to say whether they may face related criminal charges, said Rhodes-Conway. “We don’t know nearly enough yet,” she said.
Meanwhile, the community is struggling. On Tuesday, “numerous” schools within the Madison Metropolitan School District were the target of false threats, “often known as swatting,” Barnes said. “We do not believe that there are any current threats to any Madison-area schools and will continue to investigate these calls and any threats of violence as they come in,” he said.
Dane County Executive Melissa Agard commended students and teachers who returned to school Tuesday, calling it “an act of bravery.” “Parents dropping their children off after what we witnessed yesterday took an act of bravery and a belief in our community,” she told reporters. “And that’s a bravery we should not have to put on the shoulders of our children and our families and our community.
” Agard said her own son attends school in the district and that he found it “hard ...
to get up and go to school today.” Then when he did, his school was placed under lockdown amid swatting in the district, which she said was “triggering not only to him and his peers, but to family members and educators.” “Gun violence is the No.
1 killer of children in this country. That’s a legacy we cannot accept,” she said. “Part of the reason I feel so pained by this tragedy is that mass shootings feel like something that’s ominous and hovering, and we’re all wondering where and when the next one is going to occur.
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Agard went on to call state laws “too lax when it comes to access of guns by children.” “I do believe that we should have safe storage laws,” she said. “We should have background checks.
We should have red flag bills. We should be providing adequate support for everyone in our community when it comes to behavioral health. People should not be waiting when they raise their hand and ask for help.
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