The shooter at a spiritual faculty in Wisconsin had two handguns together with her however used just one within the assault that killed a instructor and a scholar and wounded six others, town’s police chief instructed The Related Press on Wednesday.
Police have been nonetheless investigating why the 15-year-old scholar at Plentiful Life Christian Christian College in Madison shot and killed a fellow scholar and instructor on Monday, earlier than capturing herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes stated.
Two different college students who have been shot remained in important situation on Wednesday.
“We could by no means know what she was considering that day, however we we’ll do our greatest to attempt to add or give as a lot info to our public as attainable,” Barnes stated.
The coed who was killed was recognized in an obituary launched Wednesday as Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, of Madison. She was a freshman and “an avid reader, beloved artwork, singing and taking part in keyboard within the household worship band,” in keeping with the obituary.
The identify of the slain instructor has not been launched.
Barnes launched the identify of the shooter, Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, hours after the capturing on Monday.
Barnes stated the medical expert would launch the names of these killed, however state legislation prohibits releasing the names of the injured.
Police, with the help of the FBI, have been scouring on-line information and different assets and talking with the assailant’s dad and mom and classmates in an try to find out a motive, Barnes stated.
Police do not know if anybody was focused or if the assault had been deliberate prematurely, he stated.
Whereas Rupnow had two handguns, Barnes stated he doesn’t know the way she obtained them and he declined to say who bought them, citing the continued investigation.
No choices have been made about whether or not Rupnow’s dad and mom may be charged in relation to the capturing, however they’ve been co-operating, Barnes stated.
On-line courtroom information present no prison circumstances towards her father, Jeffrey Rupnow, or her mom, Mellissa Rupnow. They’re divorced and shared custody of their daughter, however she primarily lived together with her father, in keeping with courtroom paperwork. Divorce information point out that Natalie was in remedy in 2022, however do not say why.
Feminine shooters uncommon
The capturing was the newest amongst dozens throughout the U.S. lately, together with particularly lethal ones in Newtown, Conn.; Parkland, Fla.; and Uvalde, Texas.
However the Madison assault is an outlier as solely about three per cent of all U.S. mass shootings are perpetrated by females, research present.
College shootings have develop into a near-daily incidence in the US, with 322 of them this 12 months, in keeping with the Ok-12 College Capturing Database. That’s the second highest complete of any 12 months since 1966 — topped solely by final 12 months’s 349.
College shootings by teenage females have been extraordinarily uncommon within the U.S., with males of their teenagers and 20s finishing up most of them, stated David Riedman, founding father of the Ok-12 College Capturing Database.
Emily Salisbury, an affiliate professor of social work on the College of Utah, research criminology and gender. She stated that females sometimes flip their anger on themselves as a result of American tradition has taught them that girls do not harm folks, leading to consuming issues, self-harm and despair.
It is tough to take a position with out understanding all of the details in Rupnow’s case, Salisbury stated, however a woman resorting to the extent of violence she displayed suggests she skilled extreme trauma or suffered violence herself.
“It takes extra provocation, extra instigation for women and girls to develop into violent,” Salisbury stated. “It is a very excessive chance she skilled some form of violence in her life that may result in severe psychological sickness.”
Plentiful Life is a nondenominational Christian faculty — prekindergarten by way of highschool — with roughly 420 college students.
Salisbury stated the general public should not assume that the college’s spiritual teachings imply its college students are above bullying and ostracizing one another.
“They’re youngsters,” Salisbury stated. “As a lot as these [religious] values could also be taught or mentioned within the classroom within the tradition of that college, children are on-line on a regular basis. Children create their very own tradition by way of social media.”
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