Someone from the school called 911 to report an active shooter, Barnes said. He said the police training centre was five kilometres from the school, and officers responded from there.
“What began as a training day became an actual day,” he said.
Police blocked off roads around the school, and federal agents were at the scene to assist local law enforcement.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes speaks to reporters.Credit: nnaallanah.sciberras
Of those wounded, Barnes said two were in a critical condition with life-threatening injuries. The other four had non-life-threatening injuries, he said.
“I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas,” he 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.”
Police previously said a total of five people had died but corrected the statement.
Investigators did not immediately know a motive for the shooting, Barnes said, and police were “working hard to find as many answers as we can”.
“I don’t know why, and I feel like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening.”
“I’m not aware that the school had metal detectors, nor should schools have metal detectors. It’s a safe space,” Barnes said.
“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 Governor Tony Evers said in a statement.
In a statement, the White House said President Joe Biden had 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 short Facebook post.
‘Your world stops’
Bethany Highman, the mother of a student, rushed to the school after hearing about the shooting and learnt 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.”
The shooting is the latest among dozens of school shootings across the US 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 healthcare issues.
There have been 322 school shootings this year in the US, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database website. That is the second-highest total of any year since 1966, according to that database – topped only by last year’s total of 349.
AP, Reuters
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