Natalie Rupnow, a 15-year-old teenager who preferred to be called Samanthaopened fire this Monday in a common area of the Abundant Life school in the Madison, Wisconsin area, where there were students from several grades. He killed a teacher and a student and wounded six other people with the 9mm pistol that he had brought into the private religious school where he studied and that, unlike many others in a country devastated by an Pandemic of armed violence, did not It has metal arches at the entrance.
First it was known that it had been the work of a teenager. Only at the end of the day did authorities confirm that they were facing a case with few precedents, in which the alleged murderer is a woman. Little else is known almost 48 hours after the events occurred. The police are still looking for what could have motivated that girl to shoot herself and commit suicide before being arrested. At the moment, they talk about “a combination of factors.” It is also unclear how the weapon was obtained.
It appears that he left “a manifesto, if you want to call it that” or “some kind of letter,” Police Chief Shon F. Barnes told CNN on Tuesday, which a friend posted online, but Its authenticity has not yet been verified, nor has the text or the identity of the person who collaborated in the dissemination been revealed. The names of the victims are also unknown, although it is known that the injured are a teacher and five students, two of whom have been discharged. Two others are torn between life and death in the hospital.
Barnes added that they were combing Rupnow’s social media and trying to determine if he was being victimized. bullying in class. In addition, he confirmed that there is no evidence that he was looking for anyone in particular. “All [alumnos y profesores] “They were their target,” he said. “They all ran the same risk.”
Experts consider it a rarity that the author was a teenager. Only nine women (compared to 249 men) were involved in school shootings this year, according to the K-12 database, which tracks incidents of this type in American schools. The name is borrowed from the school category to which centers with students between kindergarten and 18 years of age belong. Abundant Life Christian School, which serves 390 students, falls into that category.
The other big question, still unanswered, is how Rupnow was able to get hold of the gun, which leads to another crucial question: Will the minor’s parents be held negligently responsible for what happened this Monday at their daughter’s school? ? “That,” Barnes warned, “is for the district attorney’s office to establish, although at this time, it does not appear to be the case.” Barnes also said the parents were working closely with authorities. “We still have no reason to believe that they have committed a crime,” he added.
The case of the Crumbley couple weighs heavily in the memory, who made history this year when father and mother were sentenced to 15 years in prison in two separate trials for crimes of involuntary manslaughter for the massacre carried out by their 15-year-old son Ethan Crumbley. . The boy ended the lives of four teenagers at his high school in the town of Oxford (Michigan) with a pistol, also a 9mm, that his parents had given him for Christmas. The Crumbleys also ignored Ethan’s calls for help, and did nothing when on the same day of the tragedy they called them at school to warn them that they had been caught searching for ammunition on the Internet while he was in class.
That precedent led to the indictment last September of Colin Gray, whose 14-year-old son, Colt, killed two students and two teachers at the Apalachee Institute in Winder, Georgia. The charges filed against the father are because the authorities believe that he “knowingly allowed” the teenager to have a weapon.
The Georgia shooting has been the deadliest of the 83 recorded this year, according to CNN calculations, a figure that already represents a historical record two weeks before the end of 2024. The television network has been keeping that count since 2008. Of the 83 incidents, 56 occurred in primary and secondary education centers and 27 on university campuses.
Both federal and Wisconsin law agree that it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to possess a firearm. State law also prohibits any person from knowingly selling, lending, or giving a dangerous weapon to a minor. The rule establishes exceptions for target shooting under the supervision of an adult, as well as for use in the armed forces or for hunting.
