Vieo After The Jump
Dec 16 (Reuters) - A 15-year-old girl opened fire in a Wisconsin school classroom on Monday, fatally shooting a fellow student and a teacher and wounding six other people before killing herself with the handgun, police said.
The shooting took place in a mixed-grade study hall shortly before 11 a.m. (1700 GMT) at the Abundant Life Christian School, which has 420 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
The shooter was a student at the school, identified by police as Natalie Rupnow, who also went by the name Samantha.
A second-grade student, who would generally be 7 or 8 years old, called 911 to report the shooting at the school, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told a press conference.
"Let that soak in for a minute," Barnes said.
The two shot dead were a teenage student and a teacher, Barnes said without identifying the victims.
Two wounded students were in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, while another teacher and three other students were wounded and expected to survive.
School shootings have been a macabre routine in the United States, with 322 of them this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database website. That is the second highest total of any year since 1966, according to that database - topped only by last year's total of 349 such shootings.
Monday's rampage was a rarity in that it was carried about by a girl. Only about 3% of all U.S. mass shootings perpetrated by females, studies show.
There was as yet no known motive for the violence.
The shooter's parents were cooperating with the investigation, Barnes said, without revealing details of what was discussed.
"We have no reason to believe that they have committed a crime at this time," Barnes said of the parents.
Investigators were speaking with the girl's father at police facility, Barnes said, but not pressing him too hard because he just lost a daughter.
Asked how she got the gun, Barnes said, "Good question. How does any 15-year-old get ahold of a gun?"
At a previous press conference, Barnes lamented how the tragedy would affect Madison, the capital of Wisconsin with a population of about 270,000.
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