A 17-year-old student shot and killed a teacher and another student at a private Christian school in Wisconsin on Monday, in the last week before the Christmas break. The attacker also died, police reported.
Other people at Abundant Life Christian School were injured in the attack, including two students who were hospitalized in critical condition, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said.
“I feel dismayed, 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 find out and try to piece together what exactly happened.”
The aggressor was a 17-year-old student, a police official informed AP who spoke on condition of anonymity as she was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The girl had apparently already taken her own life when officers arrived, police reported.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school in Madison, the state capital, with approximately 390 students ranging from kindergarten through high school. After the shooting, the students were taken to the neighboring church, from where they were taken by bus to another location to join their families.
Meanwhile, nine Madison public schools remained closed for a few hours as a precautionary measure.
“As difficult as this day was, that person was someone else’s son and today he is no longer there,” the police chief said.
A motive for the shooting is unknown at this time, he added.
“I don’t know why, and I feel like if we knew why, we could avoid this kind of thing,” Barnes stressed.
Someone from the school called 911 to report an active shooter, Barnes said. Emergency personnel who were in training just 5 kilometers from the school rushed there to deal with the situation, Barnes said.
Investigators believe the attacker used a 9mm caliber handgun, he told AP a police official also on condition of anonymity.
“I am not aware that the school had metal detectors nor should it have. It’s a safe space,” Barnes said.
The police blocked the streets surrounding the school. Federal agents arrived at the scene to collaborate with local police.
The school asked for prayers in a brief Facebook post.
Bethany Highman, the mother of a student, went to the school after hearing about the shooting and learned via FaceTime that her daughter was okay.
“As soon as it happened, your world stops for a minute. Nothing else matters,” Highman said. “There is no one around you. “You just run out the door and try to do everything you can as a parent to be with your kids.”
The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden was briefed about the shooting and officials were in contact with local authorities to provide support.
“As a parent, grandparent and as governor, it is unthinkable that a child or educator could wake up and go to school one morning and never come home again,” said Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers. “This should never happen, and I will never accept this as an inevitable reality or stop working to change this.”
In recent years, there have been dozens of school shootings in the United States, including some particularly deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
The shootings have sparked fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are accustomed to mock gun attacks in their classrooms. But school shootings have done little to change the nation’s 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.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the country needs to do more to prevent gun violence.
“I was hoping this day would never come to Madison,” he said.
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