The Madison Police Department responded to a mass shooting at
the abundant life Christian school. Uh Today officers were
dispatched to the school which is located on the city's
east side at 10:57 a.m. There to find multiple people
suffering from gunshot wounds. Three people including the shooter
or dick. 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. Uh At that
school, six other students and a teacher were injured
and taken to area hospitals. Two students remain in
critical condition and have life-threatening injuries. A teacher and
three students were treated for non life threatening injuries.
Two of these uh have been released and discharged from
the hospital. The other two survivors are considered to
be in stable condition at this time. We believe
there was only one shooter involved. We're 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 one 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 I'm gonna go over the
timeline of events for you at 10:57 a.m. A second
grade student called 911 to report a shooting had occurred
at school. Don't let that soak in for a
minute. A second grade student call 911 at 10:57
a.m. to report a shooting at school. Officers were
dispatched to the school at 1057. A deputy with
the Dane County Sheriff's office was the first officer to
arrive on the scene at 11 a.m. 24 seconds later
, the first Madison police officer arrived on the scene
at 1101 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 1105
. The Madison Police Department also began setting up setting
up for parents and guardians and what we briefly described
earlier for you as a uh reunification center uh that
occurred at 1105. The Madison Fire Department was dispatched
to the scene at the same time. They arrived
at 1105 and began uh linking up with officers who
were also inside and they were he uh instrumental were
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.m. Officers began clearing the school
building at 1114 and bomb dogs started to clear the
facility at 11:23 a.m. The Madison Fire Department began transporting
patients at 1126. Again, we want to stress
that ems arrived on the scene at 1105 immediately connecting
with officers to enter the scene, not knowing what
they were, what they were going to uh experience
press briefings occurred at 1215, 1235 30 now at
8:30 p.m. 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
A TF 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 social workers, attorneys,
victims, professionals, former law enforcement and other stakeholders
in our community. If you need assistance, you
can contact the crime response program between eight and five
during the daytime. I give that number again.
6082846908 and you can reach them after hours at 608
3737601646083760164 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 Um
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 uh who brave,
bravely, bravely took care of, of their students
uh during this harrowing time.