Two college students in crucial situation after teen shooter opens hearth at Christian faculty, killing instructor, classmate
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A teacher and a teen student are dead, along with the person identified as the shooter responsible, after a Monday morning rampage at a Wisconsin private school.
Police revised the number downward after initially announcing a total of five dead. Six others were injured and taken to area hospitals, according to Madison police.
The shooter was a 17-year-old female student, a law enforcement source told the Associated Press.
The shooting occurred at the Abundant Life Christian School around 11 a.m. The suspect died by suicide before cops arrived, Madison police believe.
By Monday evening, two victims remained in critical condition, and two of those with non-life-threatening injuries were later released from the hospital.
A nearby high school, a middle school, and an elementary school were locked down in the midst of the incident.
At an early afternoon press conference on , Chief Shon Barnes of the Madison PD called it a “sad, sad day.”
“I think we can all agree that enough is enough,” he said at a second press conference later in the day.
Officers responded shortly before 11 a.m to reports of an active shooter at Abundant Life, according to Barnes, who said the department last trained for such a scenario just two weeks ago.
“I’m asking everyone to send your heartfelt wishes and prayers, and thoughts, yet again, to a community — but this time it’s my community,” he told reporters.
Barnes said the shooter was a teen, but declined to provide their name, age, or gender.
He said a handgun was recovered at the scene of the shooting.
Police do not know whether the shooting had a specific target or motive.
“Whether they were targeted or not would speak to motivation and we don’t know that answer just yet,” Barnes told reporters Monday evening.
Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said that “the focus now is on supporting the victims and their families.” Dane County Executive Melissa Agard called today’s violence “unacceptable.”
It appeared the shooter was at the school the morning of the shooting, rather than breaking in.
“We believe the shooter was at school,” Barnes said. “We have no information that there was some kind of breach at the school.”
The school, which is located on Madison’s east side and has roughly 400 students in all, was founded in 1978 “as a community Christian school with the vision of providing academic excellence in a Christ-centered environment for families in the greater Dane County area,” the school’s website tells visitors. “Our reliance on the Bible as the inspired Word of God and the foundation for all that we teach is integral to who we are.”
The shooting hit a community that’s already seen mass gun violence this year, after a dozen people were wounded over the summer in a shooting at a rooftop party in Madison.
Source: independent.co.uk
