Speaker 1 (15:59):
Brandon, we'll do questions just like last time afterwards.
Chief Shon Barnes (16:04):
Again, good evening everyone. My name is Chief Shon Barnes, S-H-O-N-B-A-R-N-E-S. I'm going to give you a detailed briefing of everything that happened today and include some new information that was not available earlier as I promised.
(16:20)
The Madison Police Department responded to a mass shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School today. Officers were dispatched to the school, which is located on the city's east side at 10:57 AM. They arrived to find multiple people suffering from gunshot wounds.
(16:43)
Three people, including the shooter are dead. The shooter has now been identified as 15-year-old, Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha. She was a student at the school and evidence suggests she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
(17:05)
The official cause of death will be released by the Dane County Medical Examiner pending the conclusion of their examination. She was pronounced deceased while in transport to a local hospital.
(17:19)
A teacher and a teenage student were pronounced dead at the scene at that school. Six other students and a teacher were injured and taken to area hospitals. Two students remain in critical condition and have life-threatening injuries.
(17:36)
A teacher and three students were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Two of these have been released and discharged from the hospital. The other two survivors are considered to be in stable condition.
(17:51)
At this time, we believe there was only one shooter involved. We are still working to determine a motive. Detectives have talked to her family members this evening as well as conduct a search of the shooter's home here in Madison.
(18:10)
The shooting happened inside a classroom in a study hall of students from mixed grades. A document about this shooting is circulating this time on social media, but we have not verified its authenticity.
(18:26)
The Abundant Life Christian School is being monitored by police overnight. At this time, no one is allowed inside or on the school property. The Madison Police Department is aware that people are hoping to hold a vigil at the school tonight, we're asking you not to do that as this location is still an active crime scene.
(18:49)
So I'm going to go over the timeline of events for you. At 10:57 AM a second grade student called 911 to report a shooting had occurred at school. Going to let that soak in for a minute. A second grade student called 911 at 10:57 AM to report a shooting at school.
(19:22)
Officers were dispatched to the school at 10:57. A deputy with the Dane County Sheriff's Office was the first officer to arrive on the scene at 11:00 AM. 24 seconds later, the first Madison police officer arrived on the scene at 11:01 and immediately entered the school.
(19:44)
Officers bravely entered the building as soon as they arrived, not knowing what they were going to encounter. At 11:05, officers inside the school alerted people that the shooter was down and that a gun had been recovered at 11:05.
(20:03)
The Madison Police Department also began setting up for parents and guardians in what we briefly described earlier for you as a reunification center. That occurred at 11:05. The Madison Fire Department was dispatched to the scene at the same time.
(20:21)
They arrived at 11:05 and began linking up with officers who were also inside and they were instrumental with providing aid to victims who were suffering from gunshot wounds potentially saving lives.
(20:37)
The first public notice about the shooting was posted on the Madison Police Department Incident Report website at 11:13 AM. Officers began clearing the school building at 11:14 and bomb dogs started to clear the facility at 11:23 AM.
(20:59)
The Madison Fire Department began transporting patients at 11:26. Again, we want to stress that EMS arrived on the scene at 11:05 immediately connecting with officers to enter the scene, not knowing what they were going to experience. Press briefings occurred at 12:15, 12:30, 5:30 and now at 8:30 PM Central Standard time. Let's talk a little bit about our law enforcement and our community partners. Multiple agencies assisted with a response to the shooting, the Madison Fire Department and several other Dane County and EMS agencies, the Dane County Sheriff's Office, the University of Wisconsin Police Department, the FBI, the ATF, all have played major roles in our response and in our investigation.
(21:54)
We also want to acknowledge UW Hospital as well as St. Mary's Hospital for their work in treating the survivors of today's school shooting. Community resources. There are resources available to anyone needing help or needing someone to talk to.
(22:15)
The Crime Response Unit with the Dane County District Attorney's Office have been mobilized. This is a group of people who are trained to help victims of mass violent incidents. This group is made up of social workers, attorneys, victims, professionals, former law enforcement, and other stakeholders in our community.
(22:36)
If you need assistance, you can contact the Crime Response Program between 8:00 and 5:00 during the daytime. I'll give that number again, 608 284 6908, and you can reach them after hours at 608 376 0164. 608 376 0164 after hours.
(23:03)
The Wisconsin Department of Justice's Office of School Safety and Office of Crime Victim Services are also providing resources during this critical time. Their Critical Incident Response Team Program is designed to minimize the psychological impact of a school critical incident and helps to provide long-term mental care long after this is over. And I don't know how we can minimize what has happened today, but we're going to do the best we can to provide services for all these children and staff. We cannot forget the staff who bravely, bravely, took care of their students during this harrowing time.
(23:48)
We also want to thank employees of the Dane County, sorry, of Dean Healthcare, which we spoke about before. Again, the clinic shut down for the day and employees assisted with our unification
Chief Shon Barnes (24:00):
… process. We've also seen an outpouring of support from various community groups and businesses. Twisted Ground Coffee, Greenbush Bakery, Ian's Pizza, Culver's, Mission BBQ, Starbucks, Salvation Army and all who donated food for the Unification Center so our children could get fed and be taken care of while they waited to be unified with their loved ones. So a lot has gone on today. I can tell you that it's not over. I can tell you that our officers, and our detectives and our investigators will have to be told to go home. No one is thinking about going home right now, they're going to still work as long as they can to find as much information as they can. Obviously we want to have some daylight tomorrow, so the crime scene is locked down at this particular time. But the officers, and detectives and investigators continue to work. This has been a rough day for our city. This has been a sad day. This is going to be a day that will be etched in the collective minds and memories of all those from Madison. It's been a long day for you as well. Thank you for covering it, trying to get the information out to the public as early and as often as we can. And with that, we'll take any questions.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
All right. Laura, do you want to go first?
Laura (25:30):
Oh, sure. So there is a Google doc that has been circulating on social media, because people are saying that that's the manifesto of the shooter. Are you able to talk about that at all?
Chief Shon Barnes (25:40):
Yeah, we haven't been able to verify that it's authentic. We're certainly aware that it's been posted, and the person who posted it alleged to have a connection with the victim. We have not located him yet, so I cannot say whether or not that's something that she was a part of. As soon as we can, we'll let you know. The good news is we have shared that with our partners, with the FBI and so we're certainly looking into some of the things that were written in that particular document.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
All right. Madison.
Madison (26:13):
Right over here. Could you just recap those numbers one last time for us on the injuries and the deaths?
Chief Shon Barnes (26:19):
Sure.
Laura (26:21):
There was some discrepancy there.
Chief Shon Barnes (26:25):
Okay. You ready?
Laura (26:26):
Yes.
Chief Shon Barnes (26:26):
All right. Three people, including the shooter, are dead. I identified the shooter for you. A teacher and a teenage student were pronounced dead at the scene. Six other students and a teacher were injured and taken to area hospitals. Two students remain in critical condition and have life-threatening injuries. A teacher and three students were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, and two of those have been released or discharged from the area hospital.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
I'm just going to jump in. It's two students in critical condition, and then four, including a teacher and three students with those non-life threatening injuries.
Chief Shon Barnes (27:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Lucas, from the State Journal.
Lucas (27:12):
How did this 15-year-old get ahold of this gun? Do you know at this point, was it given to him?
Chief Shon Barnes (27:16):
It's a good question. How does any 15-year-old get a hold of a gun, or anyone for that matter? You get into the philosophical question about guns and gun safety, something that we all should be talking to our loved ones about. That's something that will be a part of this investigation. We are certainly speaking and talking with the parents who are cooperating to determine if they were gun owners and if they had guns. But at this time, again, we're still talking with them. It's been a long conversation. We appreciate them cooperating with the investigation.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Okay, Manny from WISD.
Manny (28:01):
Is there anything else you can tell us about communication with the parents or the family?
Chief Shon Barnes (28:05):
No, just that they are cooperating with us right now. We're currently speaking with the father at one of our facilities, trying to determine what he may know or may not have known about what happened today. But again, he lost someone as well. And so we're not going to rush the information. We'll take our time, and make sure that we do our due diligence in doing that.
Manny (28:32):
Just the father you're speaking with?
Chief Shon Barnes (28:34):
That's correct.
Laura (28:39):
Could you spell the name, Chief, of the shooting suspect?
Chief Shon Barnes (28:40):
Sure, absolutely. Thank you. You ready? Natalie, N-A-T-A-L-I-E. Rupnow, R-U-P-N-O-W.
Laura (28:49):
Thank you.
Chief Shon Barnes (28:49):
But went by Samantha, common spelling.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Scott, from AP.
Scott (28:53):
[inaudible 00:28:53].
Chief Shon Barnes (28:54):
Went by Samantha, common spelling.
Scott (28:57):
Common spelling, okay.
Lucas (28:58):
Chief, you said the shooting was in the study hall. Was it all self-contained within that room, including the shooter? Was the shooter in that study hall?
Chief Shon Barnes (29:05):
Again, I have not been to the crime scene. I was told that it occurred in study hall, or during study hall. So there's different students, obviously you can imagine from different grades that were in there. I have not seen the physical inside of it to be able to answer that question.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
All right, Tabitha from-
Tabitha (29:26):
Chief, it's unfortunately notable that a second-grader was the one who made that 911 call. Are you able to share with us that conversation with that second-grader, and what parents can do as far as talking to their kids about this?
Chief Shon Barnes (29:39):
Great. So I'll start with the first thing. What I can share with you is that our 911 dispatch communicators are trained to talk to children. We've talked children through parents choking. We've talked children through CPR and a variety of other things, even giving birth, believe it or not. So they are trained to do that. But to me, it makes my heart skip a beat to think about that. And we teach our kids if something's wrong, call what? 911. And so the child was able to do that. Give me a second question again, please.
Laura (30:16):
Yeah. When it comes to terms with parents talking to their children about this, specifically about what happened today, but then also calling 911.
Chief Shon Barnes (30:25):
Yep. So the message for parents for me is simple. It's the same thing that I would tell my children. Listen to the instruction of the adults in the room. Run, find somewhere to hide. Find some cover, find something that may shield or guard you. But the most important thing is listen to the adults in the room, because they've gone through the training to perhaps keep everyone as safe as they possibly can.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
DB from [inaudible 00:30:56].
DB (30:58):
Chief, there's been a lot of misinformation online, including from Moms for Liberty activists in Wisconsin claiming that the shooter was transgender, which is a reaction that we see across the country in wake of mass shootings, to claim that trans people are dangerous. Can you respond to that directly in regards to this claim?
Chief Shon Barnes (31:15):
Yeah. I don't know whether Natalie was transgender or not. And quite frankly, I don't think that's even important. I don't think that's important at all. I don't think that whatever happened today has anything to do with how she, or he or they may have wanted to identify. And I wish people would leave their own personal biases out of this. We have people who showed up to work today to help kids be better who are not going home. And we have lost members of our community who are children, including the shooter. So whether or not she was, he was, they were transgender is something that may come out later. But for what we're doing right now, today, literally eight hours after a mass shooting in a school in Madison, it is of no consequence at this time.
(32:09)
And so I would encourage people to be responsible with your social media. I won't go into some of the things that I've seen on social media that quite frankly are incorrect, that are not true, that are just not helping at all, and I choose not to breathe life into that, because it's negative and we don't need it right now. We need to come together as a community and heal, and try to wrap our arms around those who survive yet another school shooting in Madison, and that's where my focus will be for the very near future.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Adam from CBS, appreciate it.
Adam (32:46):
Right here in the middle. Question for Trish. A few weeks ago, we spoke after the Kenosha incident, in which the student actually… It was not a real gun. But we talked about copycats. What is the DOJ doing in the next couple of weeks, even Chief Barnes or even Special Agent In Charge Hensel about the next few weeks, copycats or possible threats?
Trish Kilpin (33:07):
Thanks for that question. Trish Kilpin, Wisconsin DOJ, office of School Safety Director. It is true that in light of school shootings, we also see an uptick, a contagion effect of other school threats. Today in SUSO, SUSO is our Speak Up, Speak Out Wisconsin tip line where people can report concerns, we have seen an increase in planned school attack tips.
(33:31)
Since its inception in 2020, we've received over 350 tips about planned school attacks that can be averted, often after an incident such as that that happened today here in Madison that we… People start to think about, I should have reported this. I have knowledge that someone could be planning a school attack and they need to have a place to report that. So we encourage the community at large, students and families to report to SUSO, or their local law enforcement or local school officials if they have concerns that somebody is planning a school attack.
(34:07)
Targeted violence is preventable. When somebody decides to use violence, it's often to redress an upset or a grievance, and they progress down a pathway towards that violence. And when they do that, they often study previous school shooting incidents. So I implore you all to be responsible in terms of how we report this. We do not want to give a blueprint of a manifesto to future people who are thinking of solving their upset with violence.
(34:36)
And so Speak Up, Speak Out Wisconsin has received an uptick in tips today. I have communicated with schools across the state as well as with DPI about how to manage and handle those tips, whether it's an anonymous threat or a threat specific to a student. At my office, we teach across Wisconsin behavioral threat assessment and management. This is the process rooted in the scientific body of knowledge of threat assessment, of how to determine if a child poses a threat or has made a threat. We have trained thousands of people across Wisconsin, and we continue to do so.
(35:10)
So we encourage schools to contact us for information on those trainings and on those tools that we have available to all schools, public, and private and tribal to prevent school violence here in Wisconsin, which is our mission.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
And Sarah from WPR.
Sarah (35:27):
What are the gun policies at the school? Are guns allowed on the school property? For example, are staff at the school allowed to have firearms?
Barbara (35:36):
No, we don't have any guns on the school grounds. We don't have it posted as a gun-free zone, but school… We don't allow the students, even in the elementary if they're playing out on the playground and they want to make finger guns, we don't allow that. So we talk about guns in the way that we feel is responsible, that they are to be used by those in authority and those
Barbara (36:00):
… those who have a need for them, but that we, at school, have no need for guns.
Reporter 1 (36:05):
And so, no staff as well are armed?
Barbara (36:06):
No.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Right, Daniela? I think you've got to stay up there maybe, but do you have a question?
Daniela (36:14):
Yeah, I do. I guess this one is for Chief Barnes. Was the second-grader in the classroom where the study hall was occurring when she made the call or was she in a different classroom?
Chief Shon Barnes (36:21):
I think it was in a different classroom, but obviously the sound of a firearm is usually unmistakable. And then, again, we heard how the teachers reacted. "Lockdown, lockdown." The students know what that means. Some level of preparation. And then, of course, a call from the student, 911, of an active shooter. I just want to speak to something that was said in the back about copycats. I can't remember who asked that question. Anyone who makes a call or threat to a school, we will investigate that. And if you're found to be the person to make that call, you will be arrested. You will be arrested.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
All right. Ken from WKDT.
Ken (37:07):
Yeah. Barbara, I know this is still incredibly early, but is there a thought process on what the school would like to do in terms of security moving forward, rethinking what's currently in place? I know we talked about the facial scans, but does the school feel like it needs to change anything about its security apparatus?
Barbara (37:30):
We're not the experts in security. We work with the experts in security. And so, obviously, as we go through this process and review it, we'll talk with those who have better knowledge than we do. We have done everything that we could, within our ability, to secure the school and to provide a safe learning environment, as well as working environment, for our staff and our students.
(37:54)
But as we review things, that would be something that we continue to do with our Madison Police liaison and then the Office of School Safety. I can't speak to that now just because it's so close, but obviously that is something that we will continue to look at. We want our students to feel safe and our faculty to feel safe and guests to feel safe when they're at Abundant Life.
Chief Shon Barnes (38:18):
I'll speak to that. Let me just speak to that again. We stated this earlier, there'll be an after action report, where our police department, fire department, all those who are involved, we'll sit down and we'll go through this event. And so, the after action report is not to find fault, it's not to find liability, it's to find areas for improvement for everyone. If there is a recommendation to be made, we will make that recommendation. But if there's not a recommendation to be made, we won't do that, but we will look to see what we can do as a form of continuous improvement. I think that's very important.
Reporter 2 (38:55):
Can you talk about the gun that was used?
Chief Shon Barnes (38:56):
I can't. I haven't seen it. Obviously it may still be on property, because you have to be very careful about how we take things from the scene and how we document those, but I know it's a handgun, but I cannot tell you any other characteristics of it at this time.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
All right. Janet?
Janet (39:13):
Chief, was Natalie on your radar at all? On MPD's radar? And have you ever had any interaction with her previous to today?
Chief Shon Barnes (39:22):
I don't know if we've ever had any interaction with her until today. That's something that our intelligence analysts will be looking at and going through. Again, we've recently made the positive ID and so that will be part of the investigation. To my knowledge, I'm not aware that we have had any issues with her. I think, if there were, we certainly would've had some type of intervention, but I'm not aware of that.
(39:48)
But again, that's part of the investigation. We have a criminal intelligence section and part of their job is to try to do background on people and where they are. And in addition to that, we also have some resources from the FBI, just in case people live other places, not just in Madison. And so, we're trying to put it together, I think that's what you're trying to get at, what do we know about this person?
Speaker 4 (40:10):
All right, we'll get back to you, but one of you from ABC.
Reporter 3 (40:14):
Is there any additional information that you can give to us on Natalie? Of her academic record, disciplinary record, if any? Was she integrated into school? Did she have friends? Is there any color you can share with us on, if there were signs of bullying or anything like that?
Chief Shon Barnes (40:31):
Yeah, obviously that may be a question from the school, but I don't think they can answer that right now. She is a child and so you're asking about some personal and private things about them, but I don't think they will be at liberty to share at this time. But certainly, if she has friends, people will say what they think about her, but just be careful with that information and sharing that. Again, she's still a child and so some of those information we will not be able to share with you.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Okay. Whitney from CMA?
Whitney (41:04):
We've covered several cases recently where the parents are eventually charged. Are you questioning the parents, in mind that there might be potential charges for the parents?
Chief Shon Barnes (41:15):
No. The parents are fully cooperating. We have no reason to believe that they have committed a crime at this time.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
Mills?
Mills (41:28):
As far as the suspect goes, do you know if she planned the attack and then also, two, do you know if she lived with both her parents or one?
Chief Shon Barnes (41:37):
Yeah. Again, that goes to motivation, which we are not fully aware of at this particular time and who she lives with that speaks to some of her personal attributes, which I'm not going to discuss at this time.
Mills (41:50):
Do you believe she planned this attack?
Chief Shon Barnes (41:52):
I do not know. I do not know.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
All right. Ashley from WI.
Ashley (41:56):
Right here. Hi. Can you tell us at all what may have been recovered in the search of the shooter's home and also what grade was she in?
Chief Shon Barnes (42:07):
I'm not sure what grade she was in, but they're still searching and so they're still going through evidence in the home and so we do not have a complete list of the things that were collected from the home. Again, that was done with the consent of the parents. Earlier, we talked about a search warrant. We did not have to execute that search warrant because we had the full cooperation of the parents.
Reporter 4 (42:29):
Were there any weapons, any other-
Chief Shon Barnes (42:31):
Again, that would speak to what was collected. And I do not know what was collected because I believe they're still working to go through that home.
Speaker 4 (42:39):
All right, Blake?
Blake (42:41):
Chief, back here. Can you confirm, at this point in the investigation, if the home on Delaware Boulevard is the suspected shooter's home?
Chief Shon Barnes (42:47):
Yes.
Blake (42:47):
And second part of the question, you talked about your officers running in to that scene. Can you talk about the conversations that you've had with those officers and what is going through their mind, mentally, right now as they begin to tackle this?
Chief Shon Barnes (43:03):
As they begin to sit with what they were asked to do today, before any officer can leave today, they have to go through what we call a check-out procedure, have to go to our command post, have the check-out with a supervisor, and then they have to check out with someone in peer support. No officer will go home today without having the opportunity to talk to someone who wears the uniform, who's specially trained to do counseling in crisis management. And so, that's part of our check-out procedure.
Blake (43:36):
How do you lead them through this?
Chief Shon Barnes (43:36):
We do that through compassion, through leadership, through training, through togetherness, through the support of the community, through understanding that this is a job that is very noble, that is meaningful work. And that my job, our job, as leaders, is to make sure that our work is safe and meaningful. It's safe because we have training and tactics that we employ. We did that today.
(44:02)
They know exactly what happens during an active shooter. Stop the killing, stop the dying, stop the threat, then treat other people. They all know that. And they all did that today very, very well, in cooperation with other law enforcement officers from around the county. And so, that was our message that we've been talking about for a very, very long time. We were able to do that today very, very successfully, or as successfully as we could. And so, today, again, tonight, officers will have to sit with that. We have peer support, EAP, and a variety of things available for those officers who had to endure that today. Thank you for asking that.
Speaker 4 (44:44):
All right. Laura, real quick and then we got to get out of here.
Chief Shon Barnes (44:45):
All right.
Laura (44:47):
This shooting occurred a couple of hours into the school day. I'm wondering if anything was reported about this young woman who did the shooting, if any teachers said anything or any other students?
Chief Shon Barnes (44:59):
I will not have information about whether or not she had a record with the school.And, quite frankly, that would not be something that we would be able to release.
Reporter 5 (45:09):
Do you have any timeline on when you're going to release the age and names of the other two victims involved in this?
Chief Shon Barnes (45:14):
Yeah, I think we want to make sure that all family members have been notified. We want to make sure that all family members are okay with it. Obviously, people will start to speculate. We had a question earlier about social media and how powerful that can be and information that people will put out, but we have a briefing set for tomorrow in our command post at 1:00 PM and so that will be one of the topics of consideration, being able to put out the names of those persons, children, staff member who lost their lives today trying to protect each other in yet another school shooting.
Speaker 4 (45:51):
We'll be back here tomorrow at 1:00 PM. We should wrap it up, Chief.
Chief Shon Barnes (45:56):
Okay. That's all I have. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (45:59):
Thank you. Thank you.
Reporter 5 (46:07):
Can I get on your email list for media? It's just my last name at NY10.com.
Speaker 4 (46:13):
Yeah, just turn it off. Just turn it off.
(46:20)
[inaudible 00:46:37].