Transcript of Police provide updates after shooting at Abundant Life Christian School

Officers were dispatched to the school, which is located on the city's east side at 10:57 AM. They arrived to find multiple people, suffering from gunshot wounds. 3 people, including the shooter, are dead. The shooter has now been identified as 15 year old Natalie Rupnow who went by the name Samantha. She was a student at the school and evidence suggests she died from a self inflicted gunshot wound.

The official cause of death will be released by the Dane County medical examiner pending the conclusion of their examination. She was pronounced deceased while in transport to a local hospital. A teacher and a teenage student were pronounced dead at the scene, at that school. 6 other students and a teacher were injured and taken to area hospitals. 2 students remain in critical condition and have life threatening injuries.

A teacher and 3 students were treated for non life threatening injuries. 2 of these, have been released and discharged from the hospital. The other 2 survivors are considered to be in stable condition. At this time, we believe there was only 1 shooter involved. We'll still we are still working to determine a motive.

Detectives have talked to her family members this evening, as well as conduct a search of the shooter's home here in Madison. The shooting happened inside a classroom in a study hall of students from mixed grades. A document about this shooting is circulating this time on social media, but we have not verified its authenticity. The Abundant Life Christian School is being monitored by police overnight. At this time, no 1 is allowed inside or on the school property.

The Madison Police Department is aware that people are hoping to hold a vigil at the school tonight. We're asking you not to do that as this is still as this location is still an active crime scene. So when you go over the timeline of events for you at 10:57 AM, a second grade student called 911 to report a shooting had occurred at school. Let that soak in for a minute. A second grade student call 911 at 10:57 AM to report a shooting at school.

Officers were dispatched to the school at 10:57. A deputy with the Dane County Sheriff's Office was the first officer to arrive on the scene at 11 AM. 24 seconds later, the 1st Madison police officer arrived on the scene at 11:01 and immediately entered the school. Officers bravely entered the building as soon as they arrived, not knowing what they were going to encounter. At 1105, officers inside the school alerted people that the shooter was down and that a gun had been recovered.

At 11 5. The Madison Police Department also began setting setting up for parents and guardians at what we briefly described earlier for you as a, reunification center, that occurred at 1105. The Madison Fire Department was dispatched to the scene. At the same time, they arrived at 1105 and began, linking up with officers who were also inside. And they were, instrumental We're providing aid to victims who were suffering from gunshot wounds, potentially saving lives.

The first public notice about the shooting was posted on the Madison Police Department incident report website at 11:13 a. AM. Officers began clearing the school building at 11:14, and bomb dogs started to clear the facility at 11:23 AM. The Madison Fire Department began transporting patients at 11:26. Again, we want to stress that EMS arrived on the scene at 110:5 immediately connecting with officers to enter the scene, not knowing what they were what they were going to, experience.

Press briefings occurred at 12:15, 12:30, 5:30 and now at 8:30 PM Central Standard Time. Let's talk a little bit about our law enforcement and our community partners. Multiple agencies assisted with the response to the shooting, the Madison Fire Department and several other Dane County and EMS agencies. The Dane County Sheriff's Office, the University of Wisconsin Police Department, the FBI, the ATF, all have played major roles in our response and in our investigation. We also want to acknowledge UW Hospital as well as Saint Mary's Hospital for their work in treating the survivors of today's school shooting.

Community resources. There are resources available to anyone needing help or needing someone to talk to. The crime response unit with the Dane County District Attorney's Office have been mobilized. This is a group of people who are trained to help victims of mass violent incidents. This group is made up of of social workers, attorneys, victims, professionals, formal law enforcement and other stakeholders in our community.

If you need assistance, you can contact the crime response program between 8 and 5 during the daytime. I'll give that number again. 608-284-6908. And you can reach them after hours at 608-376-0164. 608-376-0164 after hours.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice's Office of School Safety and Office of Crime Victim Services are also providing resources during this critical time. Their critical incident response team program is designed to minimize the psychological impact of a school critical incident and helps to provide long term mental care long after this is over. And I don't know how we can minimize what has happened today, but we're gonna do the best we can to provide services for all these children and staff. We cannot forget the staff, who bravely bravely bravely took care of of their students, during this harrowing time. We also wanna thank employees of the Dane County I'm sorry, of Dean Healthcare, which we spoke about before.

Again, the clinic shut down for the day and employees assisted with our unification process. We've also seen an outpouring of support from various community groups and businesses, Twisted Ground Coffee, Greenbush Bakery, Ian's Pizza, Culver's, Mission Barbecue, Starbucks, Salvation Army, and all, who donated food for the center so our children could could get fed and and be taken care of while they waited to be unified with, their their loved ones. So a lot has gone on today. I can tell you that it's not over. I can tell you that our officers and our detectives and our investigators will have to be told to go home.

No 1 is thinking about going home right now. They're gonna still work as long as they can to find as much information as they can. Obviously, we want to have some daylight tomorrow. So the crime scene, is locked down at this particular time. But the officers and detective and investigators continue to work.

This has been a rough day, for city. This has been a sad day. This is gonna be a day that will be etched in the collective minds and memories of all those from Madison. It's been a long day for you as well. Thank you for covering it, trying to get, the information out, to the public as early and as often, as we can.

And with that, we'll take any questions.

Alright. Laura? Sure.

So,

Yeah. We haven't been able to verify, that is authentic. We're certainly aware that it's been posted. And the person who posted it, alleged to have a connection with the victim. We have not located him yet, so I cannot say whether or not, that's something that she was a part of.

As soon as we can, we'll let you know. The good news is, we have shared that with our partners, with the FBI. And so we're certainly looking into some of the things that were written, in that particular document.

Right over here. Could you just recap those numbers 1 last time for us on

Okay. Right? Right. 3 people, including the shooter are dead. Identified, the shooter for you.

A teacher and a teenage student were pronounced dead at the scene. 6 other students and a teacher were injured and taken to area hospitals. 2 students remain in critical condition and have life threatening injuries. A teacher and 3 students were treated for non life threatening injuries, and 2 of those have been released or discharged from the area hospital.

Mister Benjamin, it's 2 students in critical

threatening injuries. Thank you.

With

this from the state, how does this 15 year old get a hold of this guy? Just wanted to give it to them.

It's a good question. How does any 15 year old get up get a hold of a gun, or anyone for that matter? You know, you you get into the the philosophical question about guns and gun safety, something that we all should be talking to our loved ones about. That's something that will be a part of this investigation. We are certainly speaking and talking with the parents who are cooperating, to determine if they were gun owners and if they had guns.

But at this time, again, we're still talking with them. It's been a long conversation. We appreciate them, cooperating with

Is there anything else you can tell us about communication with the parents or the family?

No. Just that they are cooperating with us right now. We we're currently speaking with the father, at 1 of our facilities, trying to determine what he may knew or may not have known, about what happened today. But, again, you know, he lost someone as well. And so we we're not going to rush the information.

We'll take our time to make sure that we're do our due diligence, in doing that.

Just the father you're speaking with?

That's correct.

Okay. Can you spell the name of the

Sure. Absolutely. Thank you. Ready? Natalie, n a t a l I e.

We're up now, r u p n o w. But went by Samantha Commonstone. Went by Samantha common spelling. Again, I have not been to the crime scene. I I was told that it occurred in study hall or during study hall.

So there's different students, obviously, you can imagine, from different grades that were in there. I have not seen the physical inside of it to be able to answer that question. Great. So I'll start with the with the first thing. What I can share with you is that our 911 dispatch communicators are trained to talk to children.

We've talked children through parents choking. We've talked talk children through, CPR and and a variety of other things, even giving birth, believe it or not. So they are trained to do that. But to me, it makes my heart skip a beat to think about that. And we teach our kids if something's wrong, call what 911.

And so the child was able to do that. Give me a second question again, please.

Yeah. You know, when it comes to terms of parents talking to their children about this, specifically about what happened today, but then also, you know, calling them

Yep. So the message for parents, for me is simple. It's the same thing that I would tell my my children. Listen to the instruction of the adults in the room. Run, adults in the room because they've gone through the training to perhaps keep everyone as safe as they possibly can.

Judy from Wisconsin.

There's been a lot of, misinformation online, including from mom and prison for

Yeah. I I don't know whether Natalie was transgender or not. And quite frankly, I don't think that's even important. I I don't think that's important at all. I don't think that whatever happened today has anything to do with how she or he or they may have wanted to identify.

And I wish people would kind of, leave their own personal biases out of this. We have people who showed up to work today to help kids be better, who are not going home. And we have lost members of our community who are children, including the shooter. So whether or not she was, he was, they were transgender is something that may come out later. But for what we're doing right now today, literally 8 hours after a mass shooting in a school in Madison, it is of no consequence at this time.

And so I would encourage people to be responsible with your social media. I won't go into some of the things that I've seen on social media that, quite frankly, are incorrect, that that are not true, that are just not helping, at all. And I choose not to breathe life into that because it's negative, and we don't need it right now. We need to come together as a community and heal and try to wrap our arms around those who survived yet another school shooting in Madison. And that's where my focus will be for the very near future.

Adam from, CBS. Right here

in the middle. Question for Trish.

A few weeks ago, we spoke after the Kenosha incident in which, the student actually it was not a real gun. But we talked about copy cats, what is

the DOJ doing in the next couple of weeks, even chief Barnes or or

even special agent in charge Hensel about the next few weeks? Copy cats or possible threats?

Thanks for that question. Trish Kilpin, Wisconsin DOJ Office of School Safety Director. It is true that in light of school shootings, we also see an uptick, a contagion effect of other school threats. Today in Suso, Suso is our speak up, speak out Wisconsin tip line where people can report concerns. We have seen an increase in planned school attack tips.

Since its inception in 2020, we've seen over 300 we've had received over 350 tips about planned school attacks that can be averted. Often after an incident such as that that happened today here in Madison that we, people start to think about I should have reported this, I have knowledge that someone could be planning a school attack, and they need to have a place to report that. So we encourage the community at large, students, and families to report to Suso or their local law enforcement or local school officials if they have concerns that somebody is planning a school attack. Targeted violence is preventable. When somebody decides to use violence, it's often to redress an upset or a grievance, and they progress down a pathway towards that violence.

And when they do that, they often, study previous school shooting incidents. So I implore you all to be responsible in terms of how we report this. We do not want to give a blueprint of a manifesto to future people who are thinking of solving their upset with violence. And so, Speak Up, Speak Out Wisconsin has received an uptick in tips today. I have communicated with schools across the state, as well as with DPI about how to manage and handle those tips, whether it's an anonymous threat or a threat specific to a student.

At my office, we teach across Wisconsin behavioral threat assessment and management. This is the process rooted in the scientific body of knowledge of threat assessment of how to determine if a child poses a threat or has made a threat. We have trained thousands of people across Wisconsin and we continue to do so. So we encourage schools to, contact us, for information on those trainings and on those on those tools that we have available to all schools public and private and tribal to prevent school violence here in Wisconsin, which is our mission.

And Sarah from WPN?

No. We don't have any guns on the school grounds. We're we're not we don't have it posted as a gun free zone, but school, we don't allow the students even, in the elementary if they're playing out on the playground and they wanna make finger guns, we don't allow that. So we talk about guns in the way that we will feel responsible, that they are to be used by those in authority and those who have a need for them, but that we at school have no need for guns.

And so no staff as well

or not? No.

Alright, Danielle? I think you guys stay up there. Maybe. But do you have a question?

Yeah. I do. So, I guess this 1 is

for Q1. Okay. So what's

the second grader, in the classroom where the study hall was occurring when she was in a different classroom?

I think there was in a different classroom, but obviously, the sound of a firearm is usually unmistakable. And then and then again, we we heard how, the teachers reacted, lockdown lockdown. The students know what that means. Some level of preparation. And then, of course, a call from the student, 911 of an active shooter.

Just wanna speak to something, that was said in the back of our copycats. I can't remember who asked the asked the question. So anyone, who makes a call or threat to a school, we will investigate that. And if you're found to be the person to make that call, you will be arrested. You will be arrested.

Alright. And Ken from WKBT? Yeah. Barbara, I know this is still incredibly early, but is there a thought process on what the school would like to do in terms of security moving forward?

So we take we're not the

experts in security.

We work with the experts in security,

and so obviously as we go through this process and review it, we'll talk with those who have better knowledge than we do. We have done everything that we could within our ability to secure the school and to provide a safe environment learning environment as well as working environment for our staff and our students. But as we review things, that would be something that we continue to do with our, Madison Police Liaison and then the Office of School Safety. So I can't I can't speak to that now just because it's so close, but obviously that is something that we will continue to look at. We want our students to feel safe and our faculty to feel safe and guests to feel safe when they're at abundant life.

As we stated this earlier, there'll be an after action report, where our police department, fire department, all those who were involved, will sit down and and we'll go through the this event. And so the after action report is not to find fault. It's not to find liability. It's to find areas for improvement for everyone. If there is a recommendation to be made, we will make that recommendation.

But this does not recommend recommendation to be made. We won't do that. But we will look to see what we can do, as a form of continuous improvement. I think that's very important. Talk about the gun that was used?

I can't. I I haven't seen it. It's obviously it may still be on property, because you have to be very careful about how we we take things from the scene and how we document those. But I know it's a handgun. But I cannot tell you any other characteristics of

it at this time. Alright, Jackie. Let me see.

Was Natalie on your radar at all on MPD's radar? And have you ever had any sort of interaction with her previous to today?

I don't know if we've ever had any interaction with her to today. That's something that our intelligence analysts will be looking at and going through. Again, we've recently made the positive ID, and so that will be part of the investigation. To my knowledge, I'm not aware that I have we've had any, issues with her. I think if there were, we certainly would have had some type of intervention, but I'm not aware of that.

But, again, that's part of the investigation. We have a criminal intelligence section, and part of their job is to try to do background on people and where they are. And in addition to that, we also have some resources from the FBI just in case people live other places. Right? Not just, in Madison.

And so we're trying to put together. I think that's what you're trying to to get at. What do we know about this person? Alright.

We'll get that to you, but Okay. What information?

Yeah. So, obviously, that may be a question from the school, but I don't think they can answer that right now. She is a child. And so you're asking about, you know, some personal and private things about them, but I don't think they're they would be at liberty to share at this time. But, certainly, if if she has friends, you know, people will will say, what they think about her, but just be careful with that information, and sharing that.

Again, she's she's still a child. And so some of those information, we will not be able to share with you. No. The the the parents are are fully cooperating. We have no reason to believe, that they have committed a crime, at this time.

Yeah. Again, that goes to motivation, which we are not fully aware of at this particular time and whether or not she live who she lives with. That kinda speaks, to her some of her personal attributes, which I'm not gonna discuss at this time.

So you do believe she

planned I do not know.

Alright. Ashley from WIA. Right. Can you tell us all,

what may have been recovered in the search of the shooter's home and also what grade was she in?

I'm not sure what grade she was in, but they're still searching. And so they're still going through evidence, in the home, and so we do not have a complete list of the things that were collected, from the home. Again, that was done with the consent of the parents. Earlier, we talked about a search warrant. We do not have to execute that search warrant because we have the full cooperation of the parents.

Again, that would speak to what was cut, what was collected. And I don't not know what was collected because I believe they're still working, to go through that home.

Alright. Blake? Chief back here. Can you confirm at this point the investigation at the home on Delaware Boulevard is the suspected shooter's home? Yes.

And second part of the question, you you talked about your officers running in to that scene. Can you talk about the conversations that you've had with those officers and what is kinda going through their mind mentally right now as they begin to kinda tackle this?

Yeah. As they begin to, to kind of sit with what they were asked to do today. Before any officer can leave today, they have to go through what we call a checkout procedure. That to go to our command post at the checkout with a supervisor, and then they have to check out with someone in peer support. So no officer will go home today without having the opportunity to talk to someone who wears the uniform, who's specially trained to do counseling in crisis management.

And so that's part of our our checkout procedure. You know, we do that through compassion, through leadership, through training, through togetherness, through the support of the community, through understanding that this is a job that is very noble, that is meaningful work. And that my job, our job as leaders, is to make sure that our work is safe and meaningful. It's safe because we have training and and tactics that we employ. We did that today.

They know exactly what happens during an active shooter. Stop the killing, stop the dying, stop the threat, then treat other people. They all know that, and they all did that today very, very well in cooperation with other law enforcement, officers from around the county. And so that would that was our message, that we've been talking about for a very, very long time. We're able to do that today very, very successfully.

We're as successfully as we could. And so today, again, tonight, officers will have to sit with that. We have peer support, EAP, a variety of things available for those officers who had to endure that today. So thank you for asking that.

Alright. Laura, quick question. Now we gotta get out

of here. So this shooting occurred a couple of hours into the school day. I'm wondering if

I would not have, information about whether or not she had a record with the school. And quite frankly, that would be not be something that we will be able to release.

Is there any time when you're gonna release the age and names of the other 2 victims involved in this?

Yeah. I think we wanna make sure that all family members have been notified. We wanna make sure that all family members are okay with it. Obviously, people will start to speculate. We had a question earlier about social media and and how powerful that can be, and information that people will put out.

But we have a briefing set for tomorrow in our command post at 1 PM. And so that will be 1 of the topics of, consideration being able to put out the names of those persons, children, staff member who lost their life today, trying to protect each other and get another school shooting.

So we'll be back here tomorrow again.

Okay. That's all I have. Thank you so much.