Police ID 15-year-old girl as Abundant Life Christian School shooter in Wisconsin, 2nd grader called 911

A 15-year-old girl opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wis., on Monday, killing a teacher and a student and wounding six others at the school she had attended, police said.

The suspect, Natalie Rupnow, is also dead, police said. Evidence suggests the teenager who passed Samantha died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The teenage suspect used a gun, police said. Authorities are investigating the origin of the firearm and are searching Rupnow’s home on the north side of the city, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said.

A motive is not clear, Barnes said at a news conference.

It is also unclear whether any of the victims were specifically targeted, officials said Monday.

The suspect’s father reportedly spoke with police at one of their facilities.

Police are “trying to determine what he may or may not have known about what happened today, but again, he also lost someone,” Barnes said.

Barnes also said police are not currently seeking to charge Rupnow’s parents in connection with the fatal shooting.

“The parents are fully cooperating, we have no reason to believe they have committed a crime at this time,” Barnes said.

“This has obviously rocked our school community,” said Barbara Wiers, director of grounds and school relations for Abundant Life Christian School. “But we know it affects not only our school community, but Madison and the greater area and all schools.”

The shooting took place just before 11 in a study hall consisting of mixed ages and year groups.

A second grader called 911.

“Let it sit for a minute,” Barnes said. “A second grade student called 911 at 10:57 a.m. to report a shooting at the school.”

The school does not have metal detectors or a school resource officer, but does have other security protocols in place, including cameras, Wiers said.

“Before the start of the school year, we had a retraining. We train on this. We do lockdown drills, we do evacuation drills as part of our standard drill protocols. Our students are familiar with it. Our faculty are well-versed in it,” she explained. “The training that we did with (Madison Police Department) at the beginning of the year before the students came back to campus had some new updates and so we had looked at some of those things. So I think everything was very fresh for our faculty.”

“I can’t, can’t tell you how well our students did in that process. They were clearly scared when they realized — when we practice, we always say, ‘This is a practice, it’s just a practice.’ When they heard ‘Lockdown, lockdown’ and nothing else, they knew it was real,” Wiers said, adding, “But they did great.”

Two students are in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, Barnes said, while three more students and a teacher suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Two of the four injured were discharged from SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital – Madison Monday night.

Officers responded to the active shooter report around 10:57 a.m

The suspect was dead by the time police arrived, and no officers fired their weapons, Barnes said.

The shooting was “confined to one room,” but it’s not clear if it was a classroom or a hallway, the chief said.

The police believe that the suspect was already at the school and that there was no break-in.

“I’ve never seen so many police cars in my life — just blue and red lights along the school, along the streets. Fire department, paramedics, everybody was there,” swarming the normally quiet neighborhood, John Diaz De Leon told ABC News Live.

He said he saw officers with long guns at the scene and older students running from the school across the parking lot.

“Later, very slowly in a more orderly fashion, the younger students holding hands were let out to walk across the parking lot,” he said.

The school has been cleared, Barnes said. There is no danger to the community, he said.

The suspect’s family is cooperating, the police chief said.

Detectives are investigating whether there were potential warning signs, Barnes said.

All students had been reunited with their parents Monday evening, Barnes said. About 390 students from kindergarten to 12th grade attend the private school.

“Our hope is that something good will come out of this as we can learn and grow and continue to support other schools,” Wiers said.

She thanked first responders for their support and said the school community is leaning on their faith at this time.

President Joe Biden called the incident “shocking and unconscionable” in a declaration On Monday night, Congress called for action “now.”

He insisted they pass “commonsense” gun safety laws, including universal background checks, a national red flag law and a ban on both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

“It is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence,” the statement said, adding: “We cannot continue to accept it as business as usual.”

Biden also mentioned his administration’s efforts to combat the gun violence epidemic in the United States, including the implementation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, while saying more needs to be done and offering his prayers to those affected in Madison.

Madison’s police chief said he began his career as a teacher.

“We owe it to our community to do everything we can to ensure (schools are) not only a special place, but a safe place,” he said.

“I hoped this day would never come in Madison,” said Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.

She stressed the need for gun violence prevention and said she wants the community and the country to make sure “no public official ever has to be in this position again.”

Jill Underly, Wisconsin’s superintendent of public instruction, also emphasized the need for change, saying in a statement: “This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to protect our children and our educators to ensure that such horrors never is happening again. We will not rest until we find solutions that make our schools safe.”

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement, “There are no words to describe the devastation and heartache we feel,” calling the shooting a “gut-wrenching tragedy.”

Evers said he and his wife “are praying for the families and loved ones of those whose lives were taken so senselessly, and for the educators, staff and entire school community of Abundant Life.”

“It’s unthinkable that a child or an educator could wake up and go to school one morning and never come home,” he said. “This should never happen and I will never accept this as a given or stop working to change it.”

This is a development story. Please check back for updates.