Madison school shooting: Teacher, student, shooter dead; 6 hurt

(NewsNation) — A student opened fire at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday morning, killing at least two people and hurting another six, police said in a press conference.

The first report of a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison came in at 10:57 a.m., and when officers responded, they found multiple people dead, including a juvenile they believe was the shooter.

The shooter is said to be a 17-year-old female student, law enforcement told The Associated Press.

One student and one teacher were killed during the shooting, and multiple other victims were transported to area hospitals. Two of those have life-threatening injuries, police said.

Three students and one teacher were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, and two have since been released, police said.

Authorities are still working to determine a motive and investigating whether there were warning signs. Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said the shooter’s name, age and gender cannot yet be released to protect the investigation.

Police said the shooter apparently was dead by suicide when officers arrived.

“We believe that the shooter was at school at the beginning of the day. We don’t believe there was a breach,” Barnes said.

Parents have been reunited with students, though staff and teachers are still being reunited with their families.

Barbara Wiers, a school representative, expressed gratitude to the president and governor for their support. The school does not have metal detectors but uses other security measures including cameras, she said.

Wiers said students and teachers won’t likely return to the classroom anytime soon because the school “is a crime scene.”

“Whether we will return to classes this week — because this was our last week, we were done on Friday — is still to be determined,” she said.

She said when the school practices safety routines, leaders always announce that it is a drill. That didn’t happen Monday.

Wiers said just before the school year, they had done a retraining with the Madison Police Department, so it was “very fresh for faculty.”

An additional update is expected at 8:30 p.m. CT.

Both the shooter and the student who was killed were teenagers. Due to the way the private school was structured, police said there were no injuries outside that age group.

Barnes identified the weapon police found as a handgun. He said the gunfire was confined to one space. He didn’t specify whether it was a classroom.

Someone from the school called 911 to report an active shooter, Barnes said. He said the police training center is three miles from the school, and staff responded from there.

“What began as a training day became an actual day,” he said.

The private nondenominational K-12 school has roughly 420 students on a 28-acre campus with close to 60 staff members. This was the final week of school before Christmas break. Police could not provide details on security at the school or the facility’s response plans for an active shooter event.

The cause and manner of death for the shooter have not been released, and it is not known if they had prior contact with law enforcement.

Police are collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses. Police say the shooter’s family is cooperating, and the force is working hard to find answers.

“I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas,” Barnes said. “Every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever. … We need to figure out and try to piece together what exactly happened.”

Barnes said detectives were “working hard to find as many answers as we can.”

“These children are now the latest group of survivors of a school shooting,” Barnes said. “This time, unfortunately, in Madison, Wisconsin.”

In a statement, President Joe Biden said, “We need Congress to act. Now. From Newtown to Uvalde, Parkland to Madison, to so many other shootings that don’t receive attention – it is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence. We cannot continue to accept it as normal. Every child deserves to feel safe in their classroom. Students across our country should be learning how to read and write – not having to learn how to duck and cover.”

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said it’s “unthinkable” that a child or teacher would go to school and never return home.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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