Things to know about the shooting at a Christian school in Wisconsin
Three people were killed and others were injured on Monday shooting at a private Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin. The shooting took place a few days before the Christmas holidays. Police said the student who opened fire was among those killed.
Here are some things to know about the shooting in Wisconsin’s capital:
The shooting happened late Monday morning at Abundant Life Christian School. Police said a teenage student opened fire, killing another student and a teacher. The gunman was also dead, likely by suicide, Police Chief Shon Barnes said. The responding police officers did not fire their weapons, Barnes said.
Investigators believe the shooter used a 9mm handgun, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
The school’s website states that Friday would be the last day of classes before the holidays.
The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting and that officials have been in contact with local authorities to provide support. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has also been informed of the situation.
Abundant Life Christian School is non-denominational and has approximately 390 students from kindergarten through high school, according to its website.
“Prayers requested! Today we had an active shooter incident at ALCS. We are working on the follow-up. We will share information as soon as we can,” the school wrote on its Facebook page. “Please pray for our Challenger family.”
The school’s website said it was founded in 1978 “to provide students with academic excellence in a Christ-centered context.” The website stated that the school is accredited through the Association of Christian Schools International.
The shooting comes less than two weeks after a gunman was seriously injured two toddlers at a small religious school in Northern California and subsequently committed suicide. Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said Glenn Litton was mentally ill and believed that by targeting children on Dec. 4, he was conducting “countermeasures” in response to U.S. involvement in violence in the Middle East.
Litton, 56, gained admission to the Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists in Oroville, California, by pretending to enroll a fictional grandson, Honea said. He used a gun to shoot and seriously injure two toddler boys, ages 5 and 6. Authorities said Litton was then found dead just yards from the school’s playground.
It was unclear why Feather River School was targeted.
The website of the anti-violence organization Everytown for Gun Safety shows that there have been at least 202 gunfire incidents on school grounds in 2024, resulting in 56 deaths and 147 injuries. That data does not include the latest shooting in Madison.
The deadliest school shooting of 2024 occurred in September at Apalachee High School in Georgia. Authorities said 14-year-old student Colt Gray opened fire with a semi-automatic assault rifle. Four people were killed and nine others were injured, seven of them shot. Then a grand jury has sued Gray and his father Colin Gray – who was accused of giving his son access to the gun – on murder and other charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Last year, 45 people were killed in 158 school shootings, according to the Everytown for Gun Safety website. Sixty-seven people were killed in 181 school shootings in 2022, according to the data.
School shootings in recent years, including fatal shootings Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, FLAnd Uvalde, Texashave sparked heated debates over gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to active shooter drills in their classrooms. But school shootings have had little impact on the nation’s gun laws.
Firearms were the main cause of death among children in 2020 and 2021, according to KFF, a nonprofit organization that researches health care issues.