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

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."

Tamrin Olden, a former police department spokesperson in California whose company provides communications training for law enforcement, said she advises departments to give routine updates with factual information after critical incidents and avoid unnecessarily delaying the release of information. She said that communications errors can cause frustration in the community, undermine the public's trust and compound the underlying tragedy.

"Your credibility gets tarnished and the incident sometimes gets remembered for these things rather than being remembered and honoring the victims, which is where the focus should be," she said.

The police department has had to correct some key misstatements since Monday, including that three and not five people had died and that a second-grade teacher, not a second-grade student, called 911.

Paul Bucher, the former Waukesha County district attorney who was involved in a number of high-profile cases, said the media has unrealistic expectations about how quickly officials should release information in high-profile incidents. His cases have included 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."

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 suggests she experienced severe trauma or suffered violence herself.

"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."