New details emerge as the search for a motive drives Wisconsin school shooting investigation

By Chris Boyette, Karina Tsui, Jessie Yeung, Amanda Jackson, Michelle Watson, Dalia Faheid, Josh Campbell and David Williams, CNN

(CNN) — The Abundant Life Christian School in Wisconsin’s capital remains a crime scene as detectives search for a motive in the deadly Monday morning shooting carried out by a student and probe her possible links to a California man who authorities say was planning another mass shooting.

The campus remains closed as investigators comb through social media and documents to understand how 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who went by Samantha, got a firearm used in the killings at the private school in Madison.

Rupnow used a handgun to carry out the attack, authorities said. The handgun and a second gun not used in the attack were found at the scene, Madison police said Wednesday. The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has traced the origins of the weapons, but police won’t provide further information on the guns, “as it could jeopardize our investigation,” a police statement said.

“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,” the documents revealed, but did not identify the building.

As investigators sift through Rupnow’s social media and analyze documents she is purported to have written, it also appears she had been in contact with Alexander Paffendorf, a 20-year-old man in Carlsbad, California, who was allegedly plotting a separate mass shooting with the teenager, San Diego County court documents show.

A California judge issued a restraining order against Paffendorf on Tuesday under California’s red flag law. The order requires him to turn over his guns and ammunition to authorities within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner.

CNN has attempted to reach Paffendorf for comment, but it’s not clear where Paffendorf is now.

As Wisconsin detectives search for the motive behind the shooting, the public face of the investigation – Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes – will be leaving the department, the city announced Friday.

Barnes, who was a teacher before becoming a police officer and Madison’s top cop, will become Seattle’s new police chief, the Seattle mayor’s office said.

In a video shared on Seattle’s YouTube page, Barnes introduced himself as the city’s new police chief and said he planned to visit next month “to learn more about the Seattle Police Department and our commitment to safety and service.”

Barnes noted this week’s “tragic circumstances” in Madison prevented him from visiting sooner, according to the video.

“In light of the recent school shooting … my priority must be here with our community and the dedicated men and women of the Madison Police Department,” Barnes said.

“Our officers and community are now navigating the emotional aftermath of this tragedy,” he said. “My immediate responsibility is to support my officers as we come to terms with this devastating event.”

Barnes is expected to leave MPD in February, Satya Rhodes-Conway, Madison’s mayor, told CNN affiliate WISC on Friday. Details have not been finalized on who will take over updating the public on the shooting investigation, a city spokesperson told CNN.

There is ‘no threat’ in 2 states, officials say

A neighbor, Alex Gallegos, said he witnessed authorities carrying out “a big black box” during a search of Paffendorf’s residence this week, when he saw about 15 police officers on the quiet street. “It looked like a gun case of some sort, and that’s all I know,” Gallegos said.

The Carlsbad Police Department told CNN there is no threat to the city.

“We are in communication with our federal partners, and we do not believe there to be a threat to our city,” the police department said in a statement, adding it did not have additional details to share.

The FBI said it is also “not aware of any ongoing threats associated with this matter in Wisconsin or California,” the agency said in a statement to CNN.

The Abundant Life Christian School attack was one of more than 80 school shootings across the United States this year – surpassing 2023 for the most in a single year since CNN began tracking such incidents in 2008.

Teacher Erin Michelle West, 42, of DeForest, and freshman Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, of Madison, died at the scene, the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a news release Wednesday.

Six people were injured in the shooting. Two students remain hospitalized in critical but stable condition, a University of Wisconsin Health spokesperson said Friday. Four other people with minor injuries were discharged earlier this week, according to the Madison Police Department.

Rupnow was pronounced dead at a hospital Monday as a result of “firearm related trauma,” the medical examiner’s office said, noting additional testing is underway.

Active shooting incidents involving female shooters are rare, data from an FBI study and other reports suggest. CNN has documented 83 school shootings in 2024, and of the 59 in which the gender identity of the suspected shooter was available, only two were female.

What we know about the shooter’s life

The mayor of Madison said it is too early to comment on whether the parents of the shooter will face criminal charges, as have a few other parents of US school shooters in recent years.

“(Authorities) want to be very careful to do everything that they can properly and to execute the investigation in the best way possible, and so that’s something that is going to unfold over, you know, months,” Rhodes-Conway told WISC.

Investigators are looking at “if the parents may have been negligent,” the police chief said Tuesday. He also said investigators “have no reason to believe that they have committed a crime at this time.”

Rupnow’s parents, Jeff and Mellissa Rupnow, have not responded to CNN’s repeated requests for comment. They have been cooperating with police, Barnes has said.

Court records obtained by CNN show Rupnow’s parents have been married to each other and divorced from each other twice, with court orders requiring the teen to split time between her mother’s home and her father’s, court records obtained by CNN show.

Jeff Rupnow had posted a photo on Facebook of his daughter at a shooting range in August. In the photo, the teenager can be seen wearing a black shirt with the name of the band KMFDM.

The German band’s lyrics were cited by the students who carried out the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, where 13 people were killed and a song by the band was featured in a TikTok video posted moments before a 17-year-old unleashed gunfire at Iowa’s Perry High School, killing a sixth grader and wounding seven other people in January.

KMFDM issued a statement condemning the 1999 attack and expressed sympathy for the victims, adding their music was intended to stand against violence, according to Reuters.

Police in Wisconsin are also talking to Abundant Life Christian School students to determine whether bullying was one of the factors in Monday’s shooting, Barnes said.

Mackynzie Wilson, a sophomore at the school who had a locker next to Rupnow’s, said she never thought the student she described as shy would be capable of carrying out an act of such violence.

“She was really quiet. She didn’t really have any friends, and she just seemed really lonely,” Wilson told CNN. “It wasn’t like she was trying to fit in. She seemed very content being alone.”

Victim fights for life as families plan funerals for others

A funeral service will be held for West, a teacher employed part-time by the school, on Monday. Students described West as a loving person who devoted her time to supporting them.

Angel Brube, a seventh-grader at the school, told CNN he knew the teacher well and described her as “always very kind and caring.”

Vergara was an animal lover who was passionate about art, reading, singing and playing music, according to her online obituary. Her funeral will be held on Saturday.

West and Vergara died of “homicidal firearm related trauma,” preliminary autopsy results found. The medical examiner’s office said it will be conducting additional testing.

Meanwhile, the family of a student who suffered life-threatening injuries in Monday’s shooting is asking for prayers and privacy as they focus on their son’s recovery.

The boy, referred to as Samy in a Facebook post, remains in critical condition, according to the post by Marcio Sierra Jr., the senior pastor at Lighthouse Church in Madison.

He said the family are members of the church and he’s been in daily contact with them. The family asked him to be their voice to the community, he said.

“They ask that you please continue to pray for Samy, he needs a miracle. The family understands the power of prayer, and they know that Samy is in God’s hands,” Sierra wrote.

“For now, their request is that we stand with them in prayer and speak life over Samy,” he wrote.

The United Way of Dane County in Wisconsin has collected nearly $96,000 from 870 donors on behalf of Abundant Life Christian School, according to an emergency and recovery fund verified by CNN. All funds will go directly to the school.

The organization is working with the school to determine how the funds will be used, a United Way of Dane County spokesperson told CNN in an email.

Residents and officials call for action

Hundreds gathered outside the Wisconsin State Capitol on Tuesday night to remember victims. A Christmas tree twinkled as mourners met in freezing temperatures to grieve, holding candles and hugging therapy dogs.

For students like Wilson, it was difficult returning to the school for the vigil because of the “fear and trauma that built up,” she said.

Madison local Justin Myers brought his two young children to the Tuesday vigil, telling CNN he had “told them the truth” about what happened at Abundant Life.

“It’s an epidemic, and I’m not a big believer in the thoughts and prayers crap –– I don’t think it works,” he added. “We need action, legislation and laws to make sure that guns don’t get into the hands of people who don’t have them.”

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan called for more action from Congress to address gun violence.

“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,” Biden said in a statement Monday.

Existing Wisconsin law limiting gun access to children is not sufficient, Dane County Executive Melissa Agard said Tuesday. “Our laws in Wisconsin are far too lax when it comes to access of guns by children,” Agard said Tuesday.

“We should have background checks. We should have red flag bills, we should be providing adequate support for everyone in our community when it comes to behavioral health,” Agard added.

Both federal and Wisconsin law generally make it illegal for someone younger than 18 to possess a firearm. State law similarly makes it illegal for any person to intentionally sell, loan or give a dangerous weapon to someone younger than 18 –– but there are exceptions such as allowing minors to possess a firearm for target practice under adult supervision, for use in the armed forces or for hunting.

Wisconsin also has a child access firearm law that makes it illegal to recklessly store a loaded firearm within reach or easy access of a child younger than 14, with penalties of up to nine months in prison if that child takes the firearm without permission and if the child uses the gun and “causes bodily harm or death to himself, herself or another.”

In April, the parents of the teenager who killed four students in the 2021 school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter.

In October, a Georgia grand jury indicted a father on murder and other charges in the mass shooting by his son at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, as the nation continues to struggle with accountability for the violence plaguing American schools.

CNN’s Jack Hannah, Taylor Romine, Sarah Dewberry, Elise Hammond, Whitney Wild, Holly Yan, Steve Almasy, Jillian Sykes, Caroll Alvarado, Taylor Galgano and Ashley R. Williams contributed to this report.

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