Police search for motive in Wisconsin school shooting

(Reuters) – Police in Wisconsin on Tuesday were interviewing friends and family and examining the online presence of a 15-year-old girl to determine what drove her to open fire in a school classroom, killing a fellow student and a teacher before taking her own life.

The shooter, identified by police as Natalie Rupnow who also went by the name Samantha, was a student at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital. Only about 3% of all U.S. mass shootings are perpetrated by females, studies show.

Police have yet to determine a motive. Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told CNN on Tuesday that investigators are looking into online posts and a possible manifesto that the shooter may have left behind.

“We have been made aware of a manifesto, if you want to call it that, or some type of letter that’s been posted by someone who alleged to be her friend,” Barnes said.

Barnes said police are also examining her cell phone and computer to see if there were any transmissions between her and someone else. Other questions investigators are trying to answer are how the 15-year-old obtained a gun and whether her parents were negligent.

“That’s a question that we’ll have to answer with our district attorney’s office,” Barnes said. “But at this time, that does not appear to be the case.”

Two wounded students were in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, while several other victims 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.

Polling shows American voters favor stronger background checks on gun buyers, temporary limits on people in crisis and more safety requirements for gun storage at homes with children. Yet political leaders have largely declined to act, citing the U.S. constitutional protection for gun owners.

(This story has been refiled to add dropped words in paragraphs 2 and 5)

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Editing by Nick Zieminski)