2 killed by female student
According to US media reports, the attacker who shot and killed a teacher and a teenage student at a private Christian school in Wisconsin was a 17-year-old girl.
Madison Police Chief Sean Barnes earlier declined to reveal the identity or gender of the attacker during a news conference Monday. He said the suspect, a student at Abundant Life Christian School, was one of the deceased.
Six students were injured, two of whom suffered life-threatening injuries.
“Today is a sad day not just for Madison, but for our entire country,” Chief Barnes said. “We have to do better in our communities.”
He added that police have not determined a motive for the shooting and that the suspect’s family is cooperating with the investigation.
At around 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT), police received a 911 call from a shooter at the Christian school.
Police said they found the shooter dead when they arrived at the school. No police shot.
Police did not name any of the victims or provide any details about the student attackers. BBC America partner CBS News and other US media reported that the attacker was a woman.
Chief Barnes said two students are in critical condition at the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Four other people are being treated in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
He said police recovered a handgun at the scene. The shooting was limited to one space, but it was unclear whether it was in a classroom or hallway.
Authorities are calling on witnesses who saw or heard the attack to report it to police, hoping the accounts will shed light on the attackers’ motives.
“But this is not something we want to rush. We are not interrogating students,” Chief Barnes said. “When they’re ready, we’ll give them an opportunity to come in and tell us what they saw.”
“Both the children and everyone in that building were victims and will always be victims,” he added.
The chief said the officers responded to the school while undergoing training at the Law Enforcement Training Center three miles away.
“What started as a training day turned into a real day,” he said.
The shooting also prompted a strong response from emergency officials. Madison Fire Chief Chris Carbon said 15 ambulances responded.
FBI officers and other federal and local law enforcement officials also responded.
Abundant Life Christian School has approximately 400 students in kindergarten through high school.
“Please keep our Challenger families in your prayers,” the school wrote in a Facebook post. The post quickly received hundreds of supportive comments from across the United States.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said he was monitoring the situation closely and praying for everyone involved. He also ordered flags on state buildings to be flown at half-staff.
President Joe Biden said in a statement that the shooting was “shocking and unjustified.”
“Students across our country should be learning how to read and write, not how to duck and cover,” Biden said, calling on Congress to act immediately on legislation that could prevent more gun violence.
Shootings are common in the United States, and schools are no exception.
The K-12 Violence Project, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing violence through understandable and actionable research, counted more than 300 shootings in 2024. These include incidents where a weapon is brandished or fired, or where a bullet strikes school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims.
According to the news organization Education Week, there have been 38 school shootings across the United States this year, resulting in casualties. Prior to today’s shooting, there were 69 victims, 16 of whom died.
However, mass shootings of women are less common. School shootings committed by female attackers are even rarer.
In a blog post last year, K-12 School Shooting Database founder David Riedman wrote The vast majority of school shooters are men in their late teens or early twenties. However, since 1979, at least four school shootings have been attributed to female assailants.
Last year, a 28-year-old transgender man opened fire at a school in Nurseville, Tennessee, killing six people. The media obtained the attacker’s diary in September, which revealed the pain the attacker felt due to being born a woman.
The attack at The Covenant School, a private Presbyterian school, Three students and three teachers died.
