(Reuters) -A teenage student killed a fellow student and a teacher at a Wisconsin school on Monday before police found the suspect dead at the scene of the latest shooting to devastate a U.S. campus, authorities said.
Police did not publicly identify any of the victims at the Abundant Life Christian School, a private institution that teaches some 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade,
At least six other people were wounded, according to police. Two students had life-threatening injuries; four other people had non-life threatening injuries.
The shooter, who used a handgun in the attack and was a student at the school, was found dead inside the school by officers, who immediately went into the school on arrival. The shooter was not identified, including by age or by gender.
No officers fired their weapons when they responded, police said.
There was as yet no known motive for the violence, which authorities said took place in one spot inside the school. The shooter’s family was cooperating with the investigation, police said.
Earlier, police said five people were killed in the shooting, but later said that information was incorrect.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes, a former public school history teacher, said the shooting took place just before 11 a.m. local time.
“Today is a sad, sad day, not only for Madison, but for our entire country, where yet another police chief is doing a press conference to speak about violence in our community,” Barnes told reporters.
Barnes added: “Every child, every person in that building, is a victim, and will be a victim forever. These types of trauma don’t just go away.”
Video posted from the scene on social media showed a massive emergency response, including police, ambulance and fire vehicles.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway told an afternoon news conference that “we need to do better in our country and our community to prevent gun violence.”
Abundant Life Christian School wrote on its social media: “Prayers Requested! Today, we had an active shooter incident at ALCS. We are in the midst of following up. We will share information as we are able.”
Members of a Facebook group for the school’s alumni expressed horror and offered prayers. Several people began organizing a donation and gift card drive for staff members and others affected by the attack.
“It is horrifying watching this happen in a place that was safe for so many of us,” one woman, Kristen Navis, wrote. “I am praying for all, the tragedy of life lost in this manner is almost incomprehensible.”
Gun control and school safety have become major political and social issues in the U.S. where the number of school shootings has jumped in recent years.
There have been 322 school shootings this year in the U.S., 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.
The epidemic of shootings has afflicted public and private schools alike in urban, suburban and rural communities.
Some have taken place in Christian schools, though far more have taken place at public schools. In March 2023, a former student at Covenant School, a private academy in Nashville, killed three children and three adults before being shot dead by law enforcement officers.
Earlier this month, two students aged 5 and 6 were shot at Feather River Adventist School near Oroville, California, by a gunman who later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting, and White House officials were in touch with local officials in Madison to provide any support needed.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado, Joseph Ax in Princeton, New Jersey, Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California and Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh and Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Frank McGurty, Paul Thomasch and David Gregorio)
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