Wisconsin school shooting: What we know about ‘turbulent’ life of 15-year-old killer Natalie Rupnow
The 15-year-old shooter who killed a teacher and a student in a shooting at a private K-12 school in Madison, Wisconsin, had a “turbulent homelife,” according to reports.
Police identified Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow as the shooter at the Christian school, but have yet to reveal a motive following the deadly attack at Abundant Life Christian School around 11 a.m on Monday.
Six people were taken to nearby hospitals after the shooting with injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening. The victims have not yet been identified.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said Rupnow’s motive may have been a “combination of factors” and that police were talking to students to determine whether Rupnow had been bullied.
The teenager was reported to have had a difficult life at home, according to court documents seen by the Washington Post. Rupnow’s parents, Melissa and Jeff Rupnow, divorced and remarried multiple times, and their daughter was in therapy, The Post reported.
Facebook photos surfaced Tuesday of Rupnow at a firing range pointing a gun and wearing a t-shirt similar to one worn by the Columbine killer Eric Harris. Harris and classmated Dylan Klebold fatally shot 12 students and a teacher and wounded 24 others at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado in 1999.
Harris was fond of wearing shirts featuring graphics from the KMFDM German rock band, which was originally known as Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, which loosely translates to “no pity for the majority.” Rupnow also wore a KMFDM shirt when she was photographed with the gun.
Rupnow was encouraged by her father to practice her weapons-handling skills in the months leading up to Monday’s bloodshed, according to a review of his online activity.
In August, Jeff Rupnow – who was unable to be reached on Tuesday – posted a photograph on Facebook of what appears to be his shotgun -wielding daughter shooting clay pigeons at a local gun club.
“Is that kiddo?” a friend commented.
“Sure is!!!!” Rupnow, the father of one, replied. “We joined NBSC this spring and we have been loving all [sic] every second of it!”
In the photo on her father’s Facebook page, Natalie Rupnow is wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the logo of the venerable German electro-industrial band KMFDM.
The top is similar to ones worn by teenage mass shooter Eric Harris, who in 1999, with classmate Dylan Klebold, shot and killed 15 students at Littleton, Colorado’s Columbine High School.
After the Columbine massacre, the members of KMFDM — which stands for Kein Mehrheit für die Mitleid, which translates to “No Pity for the Majority” — condemned the bloodshed, calling themselves “sick and appalled” by what had happened.
