Police in Wisconsin were interviewing friends and family on Tuesday and examining the social media activity of a 15-year-old girl to determine what led her to open fire in a classroom at her private Christian school, killing one man. colleague and a teacher before taking his own life.
The shooter, identified by police as Natalie Rupnow, who also went by the name Samantha, was a student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, the state capital.
Women and girls are much less likely to commit school shootings and mass shootings than male attackers.
Among the 2,610 incidents since 1966 tracked by the K-12 School Shooting Database in which the shooter’s gender is known, female suspects were responsible for only 107. About 3% of all mass shootings in the U.S. are perpetrated by women, according to studies.
The motive for the attack was still unclear. Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told CNN on Tuesday that investigators are looking at online posts and a possible manifesto the shooter may have left behind.
“We were made aware of a manifesto, if you want to call it that, or some type of letter that was posted by someone who claimed to be her friend,” Barnes said.
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Barnes said police are also examining her cell phone and computer to see if there was any transmission between her and anyone else. Other questions investigators are trying to answer are how the 15-year-old obtained the gun and whether her parents were negligent.
“That’s a question we’ll have to answer with the district attorney’s office,” Barnes said. “But at this point, that doesn’t appear to be the case.”
Police confirmed the street of the shooter’s home in Madison. Online records show someone named Jeffrey Rupnow lives on the same street, and a Facebook profile belonging to a Jeff Rupnow in Madison shows 2009 photos of a newborn daughter named Natalie Lynn, 15 years ago.
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Rupnow’s cover photo, published in August, shows what appears to be a teenage girl shooting a shotgun at a local club. In a comment on the site, Jeff Rupnow says he and his daughter joined the club in the spring and “are loving every second of it.”
Rupnow could not be reached for comment.
Two students were in critical condition and were at risk of death, and several other victims suffered less serious injuries.
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School shootings have become an almost daily occurrence in the United States, with 322 of them this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. It’s the second-highest total for any year since 1966 — surpassed only by last year’s 349.
Polls show that American voters favor stricter background checks for gun buyers, temporary limits on people in crisis and more safety requirements for storing guns in homes with children. However, political leaders have largely refused to act, citing U.S. constitutional protections for gun owners.
