Wisconsin school shooting latest: Funerals set for teacher and student killed

Six other people were injured in the shooting and were taken to SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison.

Two were initially taken to the hospital in critical condition, with life-threatening injuries, while the other four sustained non-life-threatening wounds, according to the Madison Police Department

In an update on Monday, police chief Shon Barnes said that two of the four who sustained lesser injuries had been released from the hospital. Staff also confirmed that the other two remained in “stable condition.”

Psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers were on hand to support victims on Monday, the hospital said in a statement.

A substitute teacher was one of the wounded, police said on Tuesday.

“We don’t know if there would be a reason to target a (substitute) teacher, in this case, who doesn’t have significant ties to the school,” Barnes told CNN.

Funerals have been set for the student and teacher who were killed in Monday’s deadly shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin.

The pair were named by officials on Wednesday as Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, and Erin West, 42.

Vergara’s funeral has been set for Saturday at City Church, which is adjacent to the school, and West’s funeral is Monday at Doxa Church in Madison, where she was a member, according to obituaries published Wednesday and Thursday.

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.

A 20-year-old man has been detained by authorities in Carlsbad, California, in connection with the deadly school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin.

According to a gun-violence restaining order issued Tuesday and obtained by CBS 8 in San Diego, FBI agents detained Alexander Paffendorf after discovering that Paffendorf had been texting 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow around the time of the shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, where she opened fire, killing a student and a teacher. She took her own life, and two students are still hospitalized in critical condition.

Paffendorf was allegedly attempting to coordinate an attack at a government building in San Diego during the shooting, according to authorities. The building was not immediately identified.

Mary Papenfuss has the full story.

Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow opened fire in the hallways of Abundant Life Christian School, killing herself and two others and injuring six more. The story of school shootings, sadly, is familar. But Rupnow’s age, gender and other demographic features, surprisingly, are.

The 15-year-old girl brought a handgun to the private Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, Monday, killing a classmate and a teacher. Her motive and her relationship to the victims are not currently known.

The tragedy marks yet another grim statistic in American history — it is the 426th school shooting since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, a Washington Post analysis found. But Rupnow herself complicates other statistics, as she doesn’t align with what data show about school shooters.

For one, Rupnow was a girl.

Just 4 percent of all school shooters since Columbine are female; she was one of just eight female school shooters in that timeframe, according to the Post’s analysis. Research by Everytown for Gun Safety similarly showed that in 544 incidents of gunfire on school grounds since 2013, 25 were female — less than 5 percent.

Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, 15, carried out the shooting that left two dead and injured six others at her K-12 Christian school in Madison before shooting herself, police have said.

• She took two guns to school that morning
• She was “texting” a man in California, who has since been detained by the FBI after being issued a gun-violence restraining order
• She practiced her weapons-handling skills in August, months before Monday’s bloodshed
• Her motive is not immediately known
• It’s not immediately clear whether she targeted the victims or whether they just got caught in the violence

The student who was killed in the Wisconsin school shooting has been identified as Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14.

An obituary released Wednesday named the 14-year-old as one of the victims of the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, the Associated Press reported.

Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, 15, opened fire at the Christian school, Madison Police revealed earlier this week. Figuring out the motive behind the deadly attack is a “top priority,” authorities say.

Vergara was a freshman at the school and “an avid reader, loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band,” according to the obituary. It added that she was an animal lover, and “shared a special bond with her beloved pets, Ginger (cat) and Coco (dog).”

The father of school shooter Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, who killed two people and wounded six others at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, encouraged the 15-year-old 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 replied. “We joined NBSC this spring and we have been loving all [sic] every second of it!”