Natalie Rupnow pictured with gun in shirt associated with Columbine killer – latest

The father of school shooter Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, who killed two people and wounded six others at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, encouraged the 15-year-old to practice her weapons-handling skills in the months leading up to Monday’s bloodshed, according to a review of his online activity.

In August, Jeff Rupnow – who was unable to be reached on Tuesday – posted a photograph on Facebook of what appears to be his shotgun-wielding daughter shooting clay pigeons at a local gun club.

“Is that kiddo?” a friend commented.

“Sure is!!!!” Rupnow replied. “We joined NBSC this spring and we have been loving all [sic] every second of it!”

Justin Rohrlich has the story.

Neighbors told The Independent’s Justin Rohrlich of their sadness after learning the teenage shooter’s identity.

Suzy De Wilde said she and her husband moved in about four years ago and that she regularly saw Natalie Rupnow hanging out in the park next to their property.

“Every day, I wash my dishes and I see that house,” she said. “It’s f*****g crazy that that’s where the shooter lived… Every day, I get to look at that front door now. How do you live with these reminders everywhere?”

For more details, read the full report below.

As they reel from Monday’s shooting, parents whose children are enrolled at the Abundant Life Christian School have praised it for fostering a “tightknit” environment.

“We’re all a family, and we all know each other, whether they’re in the same grade or not,” Karl Gottschalk, who has three children enrolled at the school, told the New York Times. “It’s never been a concern that something like this would happen since this is such a small, religious school.”

“It’s a very tightknit community with not only excellent academics, but our love for Jesus and trust in God is the foundation,” Hannah Lease, whose two sons attend the school, told the outlet. “That’s what keeps us going during this time.”

Nick Cardarella, whose wife works at the school, added: “It’s come as you are. There is that religious element, but they’re not pushy in any kind of way.”

“It’s starting to be a big school, but we feel very connected,” Michelet Jean-Charles, who moved to Wisconsin from Haiti, said. “We feel that we can trust everyone at the school — the kids, their parents. We give hugs, we shake hands.”

The 15-year-old, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on Monday morning, is one of the few female perpetrators of school shootings in recent decades after a teacher and student were gunned down in the attack on the Madison school.

Data from advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety finds that women constitute less than five percent of assailants across 544 school shooting incidents over the past 11 years.

Josh Marcus and James Liddell report.

Hundreds of people in the U.S. have died in shootings over the past 25 years in places like offices, stores and theaters, but the carnage perhaps hits hardest when it happens in schools and colleges.

In those cases, the victims are children who still have some of their baby teeth, newly adult students with career and family dreams, and teachers who often become role models and mentors to their young students.

Monday’s shooting at the Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, was the latest in a long list of those taking place at American schools and colleges since the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre in Colorado.

Another neighbor who said he has known Natalie Rupnow since she was young said the news “shocked the living hell” out of him.

“Well, I haven’t seen her a lot close up in the last year, but she was always nice. She was always talkative, and I always thought she was a great little kid,” Art Zogbaum told Fox6 News.

When asked if she ever seemed like the kind of person who would do something like this, he replied: “No. Shocked the living hell out of me.”

Court documents show that the teenage Abundant Life Christian School shooter had a “turbulent home life,” according to the Washington Post.

Natalie Rupnow’s parents, Melissa and Jeff Rupnow, reportedly divorced and remarried multiple times. Their daughter enrolled in therapy to guide her through their custody arrangements, according to the newspaper.

The paper reported that the documents point “to an unsettled childhood for Rupnow, whose parents’ custody agreements sometimes forced her to move between their homes every two or three days.”

They reportedly divorced for the first time in 2014 and agreed to joint legal custody of their daughter. It was agreed that she would primarily live with her mother.

They remarried in 2017 and divorced for a second time in 2020. They were to divide custody of Natalie evenly, the court records reportedly show.

After they split up for the second time, they briefly remarried again. By April 2021, they were petitioning for a third divorce, the Post reports.

The Post was unable to reach Melissa Rupnow or Jeff Rupnow, who are both reported to be cooperating with police.

Therapy dogs are in attendance at the vigil for the victims of the Abundant Life Christian School.

NewsNation’s Mills Hays shared a video of children and families petting the golden retrievers outside the state capital this evening at the vigil.