Wisconsin school shooting latest: Natalie Rupnow ‘received texts’ from man plotting government building attack

A Wisconsin school community has been left traumatized after a 15-year-old female student killed a teacher and another pupil in a shooting spree on Monday morning at a Christian school.

Police named Natalie Rupnow, also known as Samantha Rupnow, as the young woman who they believe killed two and injured six others at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin beginning around 11 a.m.

But even survivors lucky enough to escape with their lives “won’t be okay for a long time,” said one mother. An 8-year-old student who witnessed the panic and the wounding of a teacher told CNN: “I was really scared and I was really sad.”

Rupnow was found dead at the scene, with evidence of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, according to police. An official cause of death has not been determined, and police have not yet determined a motive.

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The 20-year-old was seized Tuesday night after a San Diego Superior Court Judge issued the restraining order under California’s red flag gun law.

The order, obtained by CBS 8, required Paffendorf to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer demanded them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.

“During an FBI interview, Paffendorf admitted to the FBI agents that he told Rupnow that he would arm himself with explosives and a gun and that he would target a government building,” reads the two-page restraining order.

Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow opened fire in the hallways of Abundant Life Christian School, killing herself and two others and injuring six more. The story of school shootings, sadly, is familar. But Rupnow’s age, gender and other demographic features, surprisingly, are.

The 15-year-old girl brought a handgun to the private Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, Monday, killing a classmate and a teacher. Her motive and her relationship to the victims are not currently known.

The tragedy marks yet another grim statistic in American history — it is the 426th school shooting since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, a Washington Post analysis found. But Rupnow herself complicates other statistics, as she doesn’t align with what data show about school shooters.

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Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, was a freshman at the school and “an avid reader, loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band,” according to her obituary which was shared on Wednesday evening.

It added that she was an animal lover, and “shared a special bond with her beloved pets, Ginger (cat) and Coco (dog).”

The teacher who was killed was also named on Wednesday evening as 42-year-old Erin Michelle West, the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed.

West was a substitute coordinator at Abundant Life Christian School, according to the school’s staff directory.

“ALCS is a better school for the work of Erin West. She brought her love of Jesus and love of people to our staff and school family all wrapped in a hug and topped with a smile,” the school said in a statement to NBC News.

Natalie Rupnow joined a shooting range just months before the 15-year-old fatally shot a teacher and fellow student at a school in Wisconsin, according to her father.

Jeff Rupnow posted a photograph of his teen daughter shooting skeet at a Dane County range on Facebook in August. He wrote in a comment that the pair had joined in spring and had been “loving… every second of it”.

Rupnow, who also went by the name “Samantha,” wore a shirt emblazoned with the logo of the venerable German electro-industrial band KMFDM.

The top is similar to one worn by teenage mass shooter Harris, who in 1999, with classmate Dylan Klebold, fatally shot 15 students at Littleton, Colorado’s Columbine High School.

A 20-year-old man has been detained by authorities in Carlsbad, California, in connection with the deadly school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin.

According to a gun-violence restaining order issued Tuesday and obtained by CBS 8 in San Diego, FBI agents detained Alexander Paffendorf after discovering that Paffendorf had been texting 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow around the time of the shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, where she opened fire, killing a student and a teacher.

She took her own life, and two students are still hospitalized in critical condition.

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Natalie Rupnow, the shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin, brought two guns to the school, according to Madison Police Department Chief Shon Barnes.

The guns were both handguns, only one of which were used, he said. Police do not know how she obtained the weapons. Officers are now working alongside ATF officials to trace the origins of the weapon.

No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might face charges, but they have been cooperating, Barnes said.

The teacher who was killed in the Wisconsin school shooting has been named as 42-year-old Erin Michelle West, the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed on Wednesday night.

West was a substitute coordinator at Abundant Life Christian School, according to the school’s staff directory, the Journal Sentinelreported.

Earlier on Wednesday evening Rubi Vergara, 14, was named as the student who was killed in the deadly attack on Monday.

Rhian Lubin has the story.