What we know about the 15-year-old suspect in Wisconsin school shooting
Police on Tuesday continued to investigate the shooting at a school in Wisconsin that left three people dead, including the shooter. The shooter is suspected of killing a teenage classmate and teacher and wounding six others at Abundant Life Christian School.
Evidence suggests the suspected shooter, a 15-year-old female student, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said Monday night.
She was found when police arrived about 11 a.m. at the Madison school Abundant Life Christian School and died on the way to the hospital.
Of the six who were injured, two students remained in critical condition with life-threatening injuries as of Monday night.
A teacher and three other students were initially hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. Two had been released from the hospital as of 5:30 p.m., he said.
More: Wisconsin police identify 15-year-old girl as shooter in deadly Madison school attack
Who was the suspected Abundant Life Christian School shooter?
Barnes identified the suspected shooter as 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha.
Barnes did not immediately know what grade she was in.
Was the suspected shooter in school at the beginning of the day?
Barnes said earlier Monday that police believed she had been at school earlier in the day and that investigators had no evidence of a breach to the school building.
He said the shooting happened in a classroom during a study hall that included students of various grades.
How common are female school shooters?
It is rare for school shooters to be female, according to the data and experts who study such events.
Of 544 school shooting incidents over an 11-year period, less than 5% of the shooters were female, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit group that advocates for stronger gun laws. The group noted that the gender of the shooter is not always available so data are incomplete.
Justin Heinze, an associate professor of health behavior and health equity at the University of Michigan, cautioned against drawing conclusions from such data.
“I'll tell anybody who asks me that there is not necessarily a profile," Heinze said. "I cannot give you individual characteristics, or some patterns of behavior, or some life experiences, that produce with any real accuracy who might end up perpetrating an event like this."
"I think we need to be careful when we have conversations like this, because then you can kind of conflate pieces of information," he added.
What else are Madison police looking into following the school shooting?
Barnes said police have not yet verified certain information circulating online, including a purported declaration from the shooter. Madison police have shared that document with the FBI and are looking into some of the things written in that document, he said.
He cautioned social media users to be cautious about what they share online.
Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin school shooting suspect: What we know so far about student
