A makeshift memorial sits in front of Abundant Life Christian School as police continue to investigate yesterday's shooting on December 17, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin. Photo / Getty Images
A makeshift memorial sits in front of Abundant Life Christian School as police continue to investigate yesterday's shooting on December 17, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin. Photo / Getty Images
The FBI is investigating a manifesto linked to 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who killed two people in a Wisconsin school shooting.
Rupnow allegedly opened fire, injuring six others before taking her own life; two students remain critical.
Madison police are examining how Rupnow accessed the weapon and whether parental negligence was involved.
The FBI is looking into an apparent manifesto linked to the 15-year-old girl accused of killing a teenager and a teacher before taking her own life in a school shooting in Wisconsin.
Natalie Rupnow, a student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, allegedly opened fire with a handgun inside a study hall in Madison, killing two people and injuring six others before turning the weapon on herself.
Rupnow died on the way to the hospital from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, while two other students remained in a critical condition in hospital on Monday night, police said.
Suspected school shooter Natalie "Samantha" Rupnow, 15. Rupnow is alleged to have killed one teacher and one teenage student at the Christian school on Monday. Photo / Natalie Rupnow/X
The alleged killer’s motives remain unclear, but Madison police chief Shon Barnes confirmed last night that his department has been made aware of a document apparently written by Rupnow and shared online by a person “alleged to have a connection with the [suspect]”.
“We haven’t been able to verify that it’s authentic,” he told CNN, adding that authorities have not located the person who made the post, but have shared information with the FBI which will look into the document.
The six-page apparent manifesto titled “War against Humanity”, was posted on X, formerly Twitter, by an unverified social media user claiming to have received it from Rupnow’s boyfriend.
The author is listed as Samantha Rupnow – a name police have said the alleged shooter went by.
Barnes confirmed police had spoken with Rupnow’s parents, who were co-operating with the investigation into how she accessed the weapon.
“We also want to look at if the parents may have been negligent. And that’s a question that we’ll have to answer with our district attorney’s office,” he told CNN.
“But at this time, that does not appear to be the case.”
Police were called to the scene of the shooting shortly after 11am after receiving an emergency call from a second-grade pupil.
Students from Abundant Life Christian School are escorted to a city bus where they will reunited with their parents after a school shooting on December 16, 2024 in Madison, Wisconsin. According to authorities, a juvenile opened fire in the school killing at least two and injuring at least six more people. Photo / Getty Images
Investigators believe the shooter used a 9mm pistol, a law enforcement official told AP, leaving multiple people dead and injured.
A teacher and three students were taken to a hospital with less serious injuries, and two of them were later released.
The school, located in the state capital, has around 420 students, from kindergarten through to high school age.
It does not have metal detectors, a safety feature many American schools have installed following dozens of deadly campus shootings across the US in recent years, according to the school’s director.
Nora Gottsckalk, 8, was waiting for lunch when the shooting began and she saw a teacher she knew calling out in pain.
“She was screaming, ‘Ah, my leg, help, help!’,” Gottsckalk told WISC.
Bethany Highman, the mother of a student, rushed to the school and learned over FaceTime that her daughter was safe.
“As soon as it happened, your world stops for a minute. Nothing else matters,” Highman said. “There’s nobody around you. You just bolt for the door and try to do everything you can as a parent to be with your kids.”
Barnes said: “Every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever.
“Those types of trauma don’t go away,” he continued. “Right now my heart is heavy for my community and we have to figure out what happened here and it doesn’t happen in any other place that should be a refuge for students.”
Joe Biden, the US President, immediately denounced the “shocking and unconscionable” violence.
“It is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence,” Biden said in a statement.
Mass shootings carried out by female assailants are extremely rare. Gunmen commit the overwhelming majority of such attacks, and just nine female students have carried out a school shooting since 1999, according to a Washington Post database.
Madison police are expected to hold a briefing at 1pm local time on Tuesday, when the identities of the victims could be released. A candlelight vigil is scheduled to be held in the city in the evening.
