A teenage student killed a classmate and a teacher at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday before police found the suspect dead at the scene of the latest shooting on a U.S. campus, authorities said.
According to police, at least six other people were injured. Two students suffered life-threatening injuries; four other people suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The shooting took place at Abundant Life Christian School, a private institution that teaches about 400 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Police said the gunman, who used a handgun in the attack and was a student at the school, was found dead inside the school by officers and that no officers fired their weapons when they responded. The shooter was not identified by age or gender.
There was no known motive for the violence, which authorities said occurred at a location inside the school. The shooter’s family was cooperating with the investigation, police said.
Police had previously said five people were killed in the shooting, but later said the information was incorrect.
“Today is a sad, sad day, not just for Madison, but for our entire country, as another police chief holds a press conference to talk about violence in our community,” Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told reporters.
Barnes added: “Every child, every person in this building is a victim and will forever be a victim. Trauma like that doesn’t just go away.”
The police chief said the shooting happened just before 11 a.m. local time.
Videos from the crime scene published on social media showed a massive deployment of police, ambulance and fire departments.
Abundant Life Christian School wrote on its social media: “Prayers requested! There was a shooting incident at ALCS today.
Members of a Facebook group for the school’s graduates expressed their horror and offered prayers. Several people began organizing a fundraising and gift card drive for employees and others affected by the attack.
“It’s terrible to see this happen in a place that was safe for so many of us,” Kristen Navis wrote. “I pray for everyone. The tragedy of the life lost in this way is almost incomprehensible.”
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said at an afternoon news conference: “We must take better action in our country and in our community to prevent gun violence.”
There have been school shootings in recent years
Gun control and school safety have become major political and social issues in the United States, where the number of school shootings has skyrocketed in recent years.
According to the K-12 School Shooting Database website, there have been 322 school shootings in the U.S. this year. According to this database, this is the second-highest number of all shootings in a year since 1966 – surpassed only by the total of 349 such shootings last year.
The shooting epidemic has hit both public and private schools in urban, suburban and rural communities.
Some took place in Christian schools. In March 2023, a former student at Covenant School, a private academy in Nashville, killed three children and three adults before being shot by police officers. Last month, two students ages five and six at Feather River Adventist School near Oroville, California, were shot and killed by a gunman who later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting and White House officials were in contact with local officials in Madison to provide any assistance needed.
