Wisconsin police go quiet on school shooting as search for answers continues

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin police did not plan any public updates Wednesday into the extremely rare religious school shooting that killed a teacher and a student and wounded six others, a day after the city’s mayor chastised reporters and urged them to leave victims alone.

Police have been tight-lipped about why a 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian Christian School shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday, before shooting herself. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.

Madison’s police chief released the name of the shooter, Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, hours after the shooting on Monday. But police have yet to release the names of the two people she killed.

A spokesperson for UW Health said she had no update on the three patients who were transferred to the hospital Monday. A spokesperson for the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office declined to release any information about the number of autopsies it was performing or the identity of the victims.

Tension over police not releasing additional information spilled over into a news conference on Tuesday, where Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes left without taking questions. Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway grew increasingly terse in her responses as reporters asked questions she could not answer.

“It is absolutely none of y’alls business who was harmed in this incident,” Rhodes-Conway said. ”Please, have some human decency and respect for the people who lost loved ones or were injured themselves or whose children were injured. Just have some human decency, folks. Leave them alone. Let them grieve. Let them recover. Let them heal. Don’t feed off their pain. We’ll share what we can when we can and not before that.”

The media has unrealistic expectations about how quickly officials should release information in high-profile incidents, said Paul Bucher, the former Waukesha County district attorney who was involved in a number of high-profile cases, including prosecuting former Green Bay Packers star tight end Mark Chmura for sexual assault in 2000 and being part of the team that dealt with the aftermath of a mass shooting at a church gathering in Brookfield in 2005 that left seven people dead.

“The government is fed up with the media,” he said. “They have no obligation to disclose anything to you at all. Based on the mayor’s statement, ‘this is not y’all’s business,’ that’s pretty indicative that they’ve had it.”

Bucher said that missteps in the release of information has caused stress for victims’ families and has made officials wary of saying anything before the investigation is complete. Officials initially said that five people had been killed and that a second-grade student made the initial 911 call when a second-grade teacher actually made the call.

But Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council President Bill Lueders, a longtime Madison journalist, said Wednesday that authorities should be more transparent with the facts.

“It’s a problem that so little information has been released. I do not accept that this is necessary to protect the integrity of the investigation,” he said. “The public has a right to know.”

Lueders said a state constitutional amendment that protects the rights of crime victims, including their privacy, is likely contributing to the delayed release of the identities of the shooting victims. He said the law does not prohibit their release but encourages prior notification of family members.

Community members have been wrestling with grief since the shooting that came on the final week of classes before Christmas break.

Several hundred people gathered outside the Wisconsin State Capitol for a vigil Tuesday night to honor those slain, with some passing candles to each other and standing close against the winter chill. It was one of several vigils held since the shooting.

The school shooting was the latest among dozens across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.

But it stands out because school shootings by teenage females have been extremely rare in the U.S., with males in their teens and 20s carrying out the majority of them, said David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database.

Emily Salisbury, an associate sociology professor at the University of Utah, studies criminology and gender. She said that females typically turn their anger on themselves because American culture has taught them that women don’t hurt people, resulting in eating disorders, self-harm and depression. It’s difficult to speculate without knowing all the facts in Rupnow’s case, Salisbury said, but a girl resorting to the level of violence she displayed at the school suggests she experienced severe trauma or suffered violence herself at home.

“It takes more provocation, more instigation for girls and women to become violent,” Salisbury said. “It’s a very high probability she experienced some sort of violence in her life that can lead to serious mental illness.”

Online court records show no criminal cases against her father, Jeffrey Rupnow, or her mother, Mellissa Rupnow. They are divorced and shared custody of their daughter, but she primarily lived with her father, according to court documents. Divorce records indicate that Natalie was in therapy in 2022, but don’t say why.

Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school — prekindergarten through high school — with approximately 420 students.

Salisbury said the public shouldn’t assume that the school’s religious teachings mean its students are above bullying and ostracizing each other.

“They’re children,” Salisbury said. “As much as those (religious) values may be taught or discussed in the classroom in the culture of that school, kids are online all the time. Kids create their own culture through social media.”

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.

Supporters sign crosses during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Madison Police chief Shon F. Barnes speaks at a news conference Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway speaks at a news conference Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

People put flowers outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Flowers and candles are placed outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

People put flowers outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Flowers and candles are placed outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

A supporter signs a cross during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday honored the memory of his first wife and baby daughter 52 years after they were killed in a car crash in Delaware.

Biden's wife, Neilia, 30, had taken their kids — 1-year-old daughter Naomi and sons Beau and Hunter — out Christmas tree shopping when the car she was driving was broadsided by a tractor-trailer. Neilia and Naomi were killed. Beau, 3, and Hunter, 2, were gravely injured.

The president, his current wife, Jill, son Hunter and other members of the family attended a private memorial Mass early Wednesday at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church near Biden's home in Delaware. After the service, the family, with Jill Biden holding hands with Hunter's young son, Beau, walked to the cemetery behind the church where the gravesites are located.

Biden speaks often about the personal loss, sharing the story as recently as last week. He told of being in Washington with then-Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., when he got a phone call.

“I got a phone call from my local fire department, telling me there had been an accident,” he said at a White House dinner attended by members of Kennedy's family. "And the poor firewoman they put on the call for me said — I said, ‘How are they?' They said, ‘Uh, uh, um, she’s dead. Your daughter is dead. And I’m not sure your two sons will make it.’”

Biden, who had been elected to the Senate just weeks before the crash, talks about how he almost walked away from his career before it even started. But he took the advice of other senators, was sworn in to office at his sons' hospital bedside and made a daily commute between Delaware and Washington on Amtrak.

Next month, Biden will close the book on a nearly 50-year career in elected politics and public service that includes 36 years in the Senate, eight years as vice president and four years as president.

His openness about his grief and coping with it, and his ability to empathize with others who have experienced loss, have become one of the hallmarks of his long political career.

Biden married Jill Jacobs in 1977 and she helped raise Beau and Hunter as if they were her own. Later, she and Biden added daughter Ashley.

Decades after that fatal car crash, Biden, as vice president, navigated through personal loss again when Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at 46. Beau Biden is also buried in the church cemetery.

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and grandson Beau Biden step out of Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden walk from Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and grandson Beau Biden step out of Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and grandson Beau Biden walk from Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Hunter Biden, his wife Melissa Cohen Biden and their son Beau are greeted as they arrive at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed President Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are greeted as they arrive at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)