The gunman who shot and killed a teacher and a young student at a private Christian school in Wisconsin is a 17-year-old girl, according to US media reports.
Madison Police Chief Sean Barnes previously declined to identify the attacker or his gender at a news conference Monday. He said the suspect was a student at Abundant Life Christian School and was one of the dead.
Six students were injured, including two who received life-threatening injuries.
“Today is a sad day not only for Madison, but for our entire country,” said Chief Barnes. “We have to do a better job in our community.”
He also pointed out that the police have not yet identified the cause of the shooting, the suspect’s family is cooperating with the investigation.
Police responded to a 911 call of an active shooter at the Christian school around 11:00 local time (17:00GMT).
Police said they found the shooter dead when they arrived at the school. No police fired their weapons.
Police have not named any victims, nor have they released details about the student’s attacker. CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, and other American media outlets are reporting that the attacker is a woman.
Chief Barnes said two students are in critical condition at the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Four others are in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
He said the police found a gun at the scene. The shooting was confined to one location, but it is unclear whether it was in a classroom or a hallway.
Authorities have urged witnesses who saw or heard the attack to come forward and speak to the police, and hope the news will shed light on the attacker’s motive.
“But that’s not something we want to rush into. We’re not going to investigate the students,” said Chief Barnes. “We will give them the opportunity to come in and tell us what they saw when they are ready.”
He added that “always child, everyone in that building is a victim and will forever be a victim”.
The king said the police responded to the school while they were being trained at a law enforcement training center three kilometers away.
“What started as a training day turned into a real day,” he said.
The shooting led to a massive emergency response. Madison Fire Chief Chris Carbon said 15 ambulances are responding.
FBI officials also responded, along with other federal and local law enforcement officials.
Abundant Life Christian School has approximately 400 students from kindergarten through high school.
“Please pray for our Challenger family,” the school wrote in a Facebook post. The post quickly received hundreds of comments of support from people across the US.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said he is monitoring the situation closely and praying for everyone involved. He also ordered flags to be flown at the top of government buildings.
President Joe Biden said in a statement that the shooting was “shocking and unconscionable”.
“Students in our country need to learn to read and write – they don’t need to learn to duck and shut,” said Biden, who also called on Congress to act quickly on legislation that would prevent the rise of gun violence.
Shootings are common in the US, and schools are no exception.
The 12 Violence Project, a non-profit organization working to reduce violence through accessible and actionable research, has predicted more than 300 shootings by 2024. This includes incidents where a firearm is discharged or fired, or a bullet strikes school property for any reason. , regardless of the number of victims.
According to the news organization EducationWeek, 38 school shootings have resulted in death or injury across the US this year. There were 69 victims – including 16 deaths – before today’s incident.
Female mass shootings are not very common, however. School shootings by female attackers are not uncommon.
In a blog post last year, K-12 School Shooting Database founder David Riedman he wrote that most school shooters are young men in their early 20s. However, at least four planned school shootings have been female assailants since 1979.
Last year in Nashville, Tennessee, a 28-year-old man opened fire at a school, killing six people. The attacker’s diary was obtained by the media in September, and it revealed how the attacker felt about being born a woman.
The attack on The Covenant School, a private Presbyterian school, it left three students and three teachers dead.
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