MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A teenage student opened fire with a handgun at a private Christian school Monday morning in Wisconsin, killing a teacher and another teenage student in the final week before Christmas break. The shooter also died, police said.
The shooter also wounded others at Abundant Life Christian School, including two students who were in critical condition, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said.
“I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas,” Barnes said. “Every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever. ... We need to figure out and try to piece together what exactly happened.”
The shooter was a 17-year-old female student, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.
Police said the shooter was dead by apparent suicide when officers arrived. Barnes declined to give details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family. With a few rare exceptions, a 17-year-old can't legally possess a gun in Wisconsin.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school — kindergarten through high school — with approximately 390 students in Madison, the state capital. Children and families were reunited at a medical building about a mile away.
Parents pressed children against their chests while others squeezed hands and shoulders as they walked side by side. One girl was comforted with an adult-size coat around her shoulders as she moved to a parking lot teeming with police vehicles.
A motive for the shooting was not immediately known, Barnes said.
“I don’t know why, and I feel like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” he said.
Barnes said detectives were, “working hard to find as many answers as we can.”
Someone from the school called 911 to report an active shooter, Barnes said. He said the police training center is 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the school and staff responded from there.
“What began as a training day became an actual day,” he said.
Investigators believe the shooter used a 9mm pistol, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
“I’m not aware that the school had metal detectors nor should schools have metal detectors. It’s a safe space,” Barnes said.
Barnes says police officers who responded did not fire their weapons.
Police had blocked off roads around the school Monday afternoon.
Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have responded to the scene to assist local law enforcement.
“We are praying for the kids, educators, and entire Abundant Life school community as we await more information and are grateful for the first responders who are working quickly to respond,” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement.
In a statement, the White House said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting and officials were in touch with local authorities to provide support.
Abundant Life Christian School, which is nondenominational, asked for prayers in a brief Facebook post.
Bethany Highman, the mother of a student, rushed to the school after hearing about the shooting and learned over FaceTime that her daughter was OK.
“As soon as it happened, your world stops for a minute. Nothing else matters," Highman said. "There’s nobody around you. You just bolt for the door and try to do everything you can as a parent to be with your kids.”
John Diaz De Leon, who lives nearby and attends the adjacent City Church, told WMTV-TV he heard an intense blare of sirens as police responded.
“I didn’t know there were that many squad cars in Madison. We saw a few guys with long guns. They went into the school with a dog," De Leon said of police. “Later on I saw groups of kids coming out of the school into the church sanctuary.”
It was the the latest among dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
The shootings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to doing active shooter drills in their classrooms. But school shootings have done little to move the needle on national gun laws.
Firearms were the leading cause of death among children in 2020 and 2021, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues.
_
Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer and Ed White contributed to this report.
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!
Sign up and follow WBBM Newsradio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Bluesky
(© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)