Wisconsin faculty capturing newest: Shooter who left trainer, classmate lifeless regarded as 17-year-old feminine

The gunman who opened fired and killed two people at a Wisconsin Christian school on Monday does not appear to have broken into the building, according to police.

“We believe the shooter was at school,” Chief Shon Barnes of the Madison Police Deparment told reporters on Monday. “We have no information that there was some kind of breach at the school.”

Students from Abundant Life Christian School have finished reunifying with their parents after today’s mass shooting, while staff reunification remains ongoing, according to Madison Police Department chief Shon Barnes.

Two of the six people hospitalized in the shooting have since been released, he said.

Madison Police Department Shon Barnes is warning members of the public to only get their information about today’s shooting from trusted government and media sources, as online speculation about the incident runs rampant.

“Social media, quite frankly, is something I can’t control,” he said.

“If you’re listening to this and you’re at home or thinking about reposting something that did not come from someone in this room, a trusted and respected journalist, please don’t do that,” he added. “It does help erode the trust in this process, and that’s all we have.”

Barnes said such rumors could “fan the flames” at a time when “we need to come together and not be divided by anything.”

Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes is addressing the public with the latest information about today’s shooting.

“I cannot at this time formally tell you the age or gender or name of the shooter,” Barnes said, despite unconfirmed media reports the suspected shooter was a female student at the school. “We do not want to compromise any part of the investigation.”

Watch his full remarks here, via WMTV.

A Wisconsin father has described how he first heard about the shooting from his 14-year-old daughter 31 minutes before being informed by the school.

Rob Nelson, whose daughter Olive is in the ninth grade at Abundant Life Christian School, told The Washington Post that she texted him at 10:58am local time to say: “Not a drill… we heard popping.”

Oliva then described sitting in a corner of her classroom while the shooting went on outside, hearing shouts for an ambulance, and seeing police officers swarm the premises.

Nelson then received a text message from the school at 11:29am informing him of an “active shooter incident”, with a follow-up text instructing him to go to a medical clinic to be connected with his children.

“We’ve been packed into a small room in the basement here for the last several hours, basically with no information,” he said.

Abundant Life Christian School did not have a school police officer or metal detectors on-site at the time of Monday’s shooting, according to local police.

“I’m not aware that the school has metal detectors, nor should schools have metal detectors,” Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told reporters on Monday. “It’s a school, it’s a safe space.”

As The Independent has reported, school resource officers are a frequent topic of discussion after school shootings, but research hasn’t shown that they’re effective at stopping mass gun violence incidents.

A vigil is planned tomorrow for the victims of Monday’s school shooting in Madison.

The event will take place at the Wisconsin State Capitol.

“We are actively planning ways to provide support, including safe spaces for youth to process their feelings, sharing mental health resources, and collaborating with community partners to address community needs,” Michael Johnson of the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County wrote on Facebook.

Doc Rivers, head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team, is the latest community leader to weigh in on the Madison shooting.

“It’s just a shame that this keeps happening, that kids can’t go to school safe and it seems like we don’t do anything about it,” Rivers told reporters on Monday. “I’m not going to get up on the podium and give a long speech, except for it’s just bad, and we’re thinking about ‘em.”

The shooting on Monday in Madison, Wisconsin, is the 83rd school shooting this year.

Community members are in shock in Madison, Wisconsin, after a shooting at a Christian school left three people dead, included the suspected shooter, and six people injured.

“I didn’t want to believe it. First I thought it was an accident,” Gary Herrmann, who lives nearby, told WMTV. “And then when I heard shooter, that’s when it really hit me.”

“Your world stops for a minute. Nothing else matters,” Bethany Highman, whose daughter goes to Abundant Life Christian School, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We’re just waiting, praying.”