Police were alerted to a mass shooting at a private school in Wisconsin on Monday because a second-grader called 911 during the shooting, authorities said.
A teacher and a teenage student died after authorities said a 15-year-old student opened fire with a handgun on Dec. 16 at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin. The suspected shooter died on the way to the hospital from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said at a news conference on Dec. 16 that his department learned of the shooting when a young student at the school called for help.
“At 10:57 a.m., a second-grader called 911 to report that there had been a shooting at school,” a solemn Barnes said as he searched the room. “Let that sink in for a minute. A second grader called 911 at 10:57 a.m. to report a school shooting.”
The small school has a total of fewer than 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Authorities arrived just minutes after receiving the call and alerted people that the shooter was on the ground and the gun could be recovered at 11:05 a.m., Barnes said.
Six others were injured, including two students who are in critical condition, according to Barnes. Police did not release the names of those killed or injured.
“It was a sad day,” Barnes said. “This will be a day etched in the collective minds and memories of all Madisonians.”
The shooting occurred in a classroom that served as a study hall for students in different grades, Barnes said.
“When your children are at school, they are not doing well. When they're in church, they don't feel well. When they're outside, they're not okay. “Where will they be safe?” parent Mireille Jean-Charles told a group of reporters outside the school on December 16.
Police identified the suspected shooter as Abundant Life Christian School student Natalie Rupnow, 15, who was walking past Samantha. Investigators are scouring the suspects' social media and searched their home on Dec. 16 to determine a motive.
Authorities questioned the alleged shooter's father for hours and are investigating how she obtained a firearm. Barnes said the suspected shooter's parents “cooperated fully” in the investigation.
The shooting came less than two weeks after two kindergarten students were shot at a Seventh-day Adventist school in Northern California.
The Wisconsin shooting also came two days after the anniversary of the 2012 killing of 20 first-graders and six educators in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The shooting survivors graduated from high school in June.
