Teacher, student killed in Wisconsin school shooting identified
a teacher and a student killed in shooting Authorities on Wednesday identified an incident that occurred at a school in Madison, Wisconsin, earlier this week.
Erin West, 42, and Rubi Vergara, 14, the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a news release provided to CBS News Shot to death Monday morning at Abundant Life Christian School.
Preliminary examination determined both men died from “homicide firearm-related trauma.” Both men were pronounced dead at the scene, the medical examiner said.
Online obituaries on local funeral websites point out Vergara, a freshman, leaves behind her parents, a brother and extended family. It describes her as “an avid reader” who “loved the arts and sang and played keyboards in the family worship band.”
West’s exact stance on the school is unclear.
The medical examiner also confirmed that a preliminary autopsy found that the suspected shooter, 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, a student at the same school, was pronounced dead of “gun-related trauma” at a local hospital on Monday. Madison Police Chief Sean F. Barnes previously told reporters that Rupnow was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital.
Police also said earlier that she was believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The shooting was reported just before 11 a.m. Monday at the private Christian K-12 school. In addition to the two people killed and the gunman, six people were injured.
Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom in the study hall and involved students from multiple grades.
Barnes said police recovered a handgun after the shooting, but it’s unclear where it came from or how many shots were fired. A law enforcement source said the weapon used in the shooting appeared to be a 9 mm handgun.
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