Abundant Life Christian School shooting latest: Motive appears to be a combination of factors, police say

Officials are trying to determine why a 15-year-old girl allegedly opened fire at her school, Abundant Life Christian School, on Monday morning, killing a fellow student and teacher in a heinous crime that shocked the Madison, Wis., community.

The motive appears to be a combination of factors, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said at a news conference Tuesday.

Police are speaking with students to determine if bullying was a factor, he said.

“Everyone was targeted in this incident and everyone was at equal risk,” Barnes said.

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

A candlelight vigil was held in the capital on Tuesday evening for the victims of the shooting.

“Yesterday, the Madison community experienced a horrific and traumatic event,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said at the vigil. “We’ll never be the same, but we’ll get through this. And we’ll get through this together by trusting each other and taking care of each other.”

The victims have not been publicly identified. Rhodes-Conway told reporters during the news conference that they respect the privacy of the victims’ families and will “share what we can when we can and not before.”

“Let them grieve. Let them recover. Let them heal,” she said.

The suspect, Natalie Rupnow, who went by Samantha, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. The officers did not fire their weapons.

Police are investigating Rupnow’s online activity, Barnes said. He urged anyone who knew her or had insight into her feelings to call Madison Area Crime Stoppers at 608-266-6014.

Rupnow’s parents are cooperating with the investigation, Barnes told ABC News on Tuesday.

“They were cooperative. Despite this tragedy, they still lost a child. They still lost a member of their family,” Barnes said. “It’s certain that they probably have more questions than anyone because they knew her. They lived with her, and so we wanted to get an account from them about what kind of child she was.”

Her father is being questioned by investigators, Barnes said. He said he did not know if the mother had been questioned and noted that she has been out of town.

Students in kindergarten through 12th grade attend the Christian school. Police said the shooting was in a classroom below a study hall “full of students from multiple grade levels.”

“I was in the hallway and I changed from my shoes to my boots to go to lunch because I have time off, but then I heard the shooting and the screams,” a second-grade girl. told Chicago ABC station WLS.

A second grade teacher called 911 at 10:57 a.m., Barnes said.

Police initially said Monday that it was a second-grader who called 911; on Tuesday, Barnes changed it to a teacher.

James Smith told ABC News that his 17-year-old daughter was in physics class when gunshots rang out two classrooms away. She was not injured.

Smith said Abundant Life Christian School welcomes students who may have been bullied or had a hard time at other schools.

“We as a school want to help those who have issues to be able to give them a safe space to grow while balancing across a safe space for the rest of our student body,” he said .

Smith also said the school’s population grew dramatically after the pandemic as many parents sought an alternative to public schools.

On Tuesday, several schools in the Madison Metropolitan School District were “the target of false threats, commonly known as swatting,” Barnes told reporters.

Police are investigating, Barnes said, noting that authorities do not believe there are any current threats.

“Making false threats is a felony and we are cooperating with the district attorney,” he said.

In the wake of Monday’s shooting, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are calling on elected officials to fight gun violence.

Biden, in a statement, called the shooting “shocking and unconscionable,” and he cited 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.

Biden asked Congress to 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,” Biden said, adding, “We cannot continue to accept it as business as usual.”

“It’s another school shooting, another community being torn apart and torn apart by gun violence,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in remarks Tuesday. “And of course, our nation mourns those who were killed and we pray for recovery for those who were injured and for the entire community.”

Harris, who played a role in the Biden administration’s efforts to combat gun violence, stressed, “We as a nation must renew our commitment to ending the horror of gun violence, both mass shootings and everyday gun violence that affects so many communities in our nation.”

“We need to end it and we need to be committed to having the courage to know that solutions are at hand, but we need elected leaders to have the courage to step up and do the right thing,” she said.

ABC News’ Alex Perez, Briana Stewart and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.