“Let that sink in,” Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said Monday of the news that the day’s school shooting in the Wisconsin capital had been called in by a second grader. (UPDATE: At a Tuesday press conference, Barnes clarified that it was a second-grade teacher, not a second-grader, who had placed the original call. He said the mistake had come from a misinterpretation of the computer-aided dispatch system, and apologized for the mistake.)
Now, a second grader has spoken out about living through the tragedy.
Nora Gottschalk, an eight-year-old student at Madison’s Abundant Life Christian School, spoke to the CNN-affiliated WISC.
https://t.co/QeCXobIXCP Nora Gottschalk, an 8-Year-Old Abundant Life Christian School Student, Recounts Terrifying Moments as Shooting Unfolds: Chaos, Screams, Immediate Lockdown, and Desperate Family Reunifications Amid the Madisonhttps://t.co/QeCXobIXCP pic.twitter.com/FdOpoca0xH
— reinaldo hristov (@ReinaldoHristov) December 17, 2024
“I was getting ready for lunch so it was basically lunchtime and then I just heard shotting,” she said. “And then there was a teacher and she was screaming like, ‘Ahh, my leg! Help! Help!'”
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Another young student at the school, Adler-Jean Charles, also spoke to the media, about what happened after the shooting.
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In the 24 hours since the shooting, per CNN, here’s what is known: Two people are dead, including a student and a teacher, while six others were injured, as the shooting appears to have been confined entirely to a single room where a study hall was taking place.
The shooter has been identified as Natalie Rupnow, a 15-year-old student, who shot herself following the shooting. The police have asked that no vigil be held at the school, as it is still an active crime scene. The father of the suspect is speaking with police, while Barnes has said that they are not looking to charge the parents with crimes, “at this time.”
Per Reuters, the suspect’s motive is at this point unclear. Various documents have surfaced online claiming to represent the shooter’s manifesto, but those have not been authenticated, police said.
“We have been made aware of a manifesto, if you want to call it that, or some type of letter that’s been posted by someone who alleged to be her friend,” Barnes said, per Reuters. He added that police are searching the suspect’s electronic devices for additional evidence.
Speaking up about the shooting on Tuesday was none other than Vice President Kamala Harris, who addressed the shooting while speaking in Maryland.
Happening Now: I am in Prince George’s County, MD to speak with young leaders about the importance of their continued leadership in the fight for our freedoms. https://t.co/UyclgaAyn1
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) December 17, 2024
“It’s another school shooting, another community being torn apart and hurt by gun violence,” Harris said, per CNN. “And of course, our nation mourns for those who were killed, and we pray for the recovery of those who are injured and for the entire community. But look as we hold our loved ones close this holiday season, we as a nation must renew our commitment to end the horror of gun violence.”
And despite some speculation from bigots online, which tends to happen after most mass shootings, no evidence has emerged that the the shooter was trangender.
“I don’t know whether Natalie was transgender or not. And, quite frankly, I don’t think that’s important at all,” Barnes said in a press conference Monday. “I don’t think whatever happened today has anything to do with how she or he or they may want to identify.”
Rupnow also represented a rarity as a female mass shooter.
“Statistically, it is very rare that a school shooter is female,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, told the Milwakee Journal Sentinel. “Nonetheless, we can’t lose sight of what really matters: No child should be dodging bullets while at school and no teenager should be able to get their hands on a gun.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
