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Father of school shooter Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, who killed two people and wounded six at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, encouraged the 15-year-old to practice her gun skills in the months before Bloodshed on Mondayaccording to a review of his online activities.
In August, Jeff Rupnow — who could not be reached Tuesday — posted a photo on Facebook that appeared to show his shotgun-wielding daughter shooting clay pigeons at a local gun club.
“Is that a kid?” a friend commented.
“Of course!!!!” Rupnow, a father of one, answered. “We joined NBSC this spring and we all liked each other [sic] every second of it!”
The North Bristol Sports Club, or NBSC, is located in Sun Prairie, a suburb of 35,000 residents approximately 20 miles northeast of Madison. An individual membership is $75 per year and a family membership is $90, plus a $25 annual rifle/pistol premium. The NBSC youth program accepts children as young as 9, according to the club’s website.
In the photo at her father’s place Facebook page, Natalie Rupnow wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of respected German electro-industrial band KMFDM. The top is similar to the ones they wear teenage mass shooter Eric Harriswho in 1999, along with classmate Dylan Klebold, shot and killed 15 students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
Afterwards massacre in Colombiamembers of the KMFDM — which means No majority to pitywhich translates to “No pity for the majority” – condemned the bloodshed, calling himself “sickened and disgusted” by what happened.
“From the beginning, our music has been a statement against war, oppression, fascism and violence against others,” the band announced, before addressing the fact that Columbine The recording took place on April 20, the same day the band’s latest album was released — which also happened to be the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birthday.
“[N]one of us condones any Nazi beliefs,” the announcement said.
Police have not yet determined a motive, but Madison Police Chief Sean Barnes told reporters Tuesday that investigators are looking into “a combination of factors,” including the possibility that Rupnow was abused. Jeff and Melissa Rupnow, who also could not be reached, are reportedly cooperating with police.
After the unimaginable events of Monday, the police raided Rupnov’s house in Madison’s Sherman Village neighborhood, approaching the three-bedroom home in an armored vehicle and forcing his way inside using flash bombs.
Adam De Wilde, who lives across the street and watched the whole thing unfold, at first thought he was witnessing a drug bust. Only later did he learn that his teenage neighbor, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before police responded to the Abundant Life school, was behind the murders that immediately cast a pall over the Midwestern college town.
“I talked to a few of them [other] neighbors, and that’s just sadness” De Wilde said The Independent. “It’s sad to think that a kid wakes up in the morning and grabs a gun and goes to school and they’re your neighbor.”
His wife, Suzy De Wilde, he said she has no choice but to look at the Rupnow residence very regularly.
“I wash the dishes every day and I see that house,” she said. “It’s fucking crazy that a murderer lived there… I look at that front door every day now. How do you live with these reminders everywhere?”
President Joe Bidenwho has a month left in his only term, called Monday’s shooting “shocking and unconscionable.”