A 15-year-old who killed two and injured others in a shooting at a Christian school in Madison on Monday had two handguns with her, though police believe she used only one of them in the attack, the city’s police chief told the Journal Sentinel Wednesday evening.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said Natalie Rupnow, a freshman at Abundant Life Christian School, had two guns with her when she opened fire on a study hall, killing a teacher and fellow student and leaving six more injured. Evidence suggests she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and no officers fired their weapons, he said previously.
The police chief said many questions remain about her motive, as authorities investigate the teenager’s cellphone activity and how she got the firearms.
“We believe, preliminarily, that one of these handguns was the sole weapon used to commit this heinous act, and the other was not used,” Barnes said, noting a ballistics report would ultimately determine how many of the guns were used.
Police know the origins of the firearms and believe they can follow their path, but Barnes said he was wary of saying too much at risk of jeopardizing any potential criminal case. He said it was too early to say if charges would be filed in the shooting.
A “major part” of the investigation is determining how she got the guns and from whom, he said. Barnes said he asked the ATF to trace their origins.
The Journal Sentinel spoke with Barnes shortly after media reports surfaced saying a man who had been in contact with the shooter was detained in California. A court document showed the 20-year-old has been held on suspicion of coordinating a mass shooting at a government building in conjunction with the Madison school shooter. Barnes said he could not speak to those reports and referred questions to the FBI.
He also spoke with the news organization as the people killed were publicly identified for the first time as Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, of Madison and Erin M. West, 42, of Deforest.
As for the people who were injured, Barnes said the hospital had stopped updating police about the conditions of the people who remain there, citing privacy laws.
He said to his knowledge those victims are still alive.
On Tuesday, he said of the six who were injured, two students remained in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. A teacher and three other students were initially hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. Two had been released from the hospital as of Monday evening.
He said with the information police currently have he could not say that she targeted a specific person. If anyone has information that would indicate she was targeting someone, he asked them to come forward to police.
“The shooter made a decision to walk into that study hall with mixed high school students and open fire,” he said. “Everyone in that room had an equal chance of dying that day.”
He did not know whether she was assigned to be in that study hall.
Little is publicly known of the shooter.
Court records indicate she cycled between the homes of her parents — who married and divorced more than once during her lifetime, finalizing their most recent separation in the summer of 2022.
In the wake of the shooting, attention has also turned to the freshman student’s online presence. However, details — including a manifesto some believe was written by her — remain unverified.
The department is seeking a person who first posted the purported manifesto online, because “it was alleged that there was a direct link to that person.” If it’s true that person had direct contact with her, Barnes said they would have information valuable to investigators.
Investigators are conducting an analysis of the teenager’s cell phone to determine if the document originated from her device.
David Clarey can be reached at dclarey@gannett.com. Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.
This story was updated to add new information.