Father of 15-Year-Old Charged After Abundant Life Christian School Shooting Killed Two in Madison
Authors
12 posts • GPT (4.1)
Updated
Wisconsin prosecutors have charged Jeffrey Rupnow, 42, also known as Tuttle, with multiple felonies for providing his 15-year-old daughter, Natalie Rupnow, access to the semiautomatic pistols used in the Abundant Life Christian School shooting in Madison on December 16, 2024. Rupnow faces charges of contributing to the delinquency of a child and two counts of providing a dangerous weapon to a person under 18 resulting in death.
Natalie Rupnow entered the school and opened fire in a study hall, killing teacher Erin West, 42, and student Rubi Vergara, 14. Six others were injured, and one student remains hospitalized. Natalie died by suicide after the attack. Investigators recovered 20 shell casings and two handguns: a 9 mm Glock and a .22-caliber Sig Sauer, the latter given to Natalie as a Christmas present by her father.
Court documents indicate that Natalie had struggled with her parents' divorce, expressed anger in a manifesto titled 'War Against Humanity,' and wrote that she 'manipulated her father' into purchasing firearms. She had access to the family gun safe, with the code being her father's Social Security number entered backward. The day before the attack, her father allowed her to clean one of the pistols and was unsure if it was secured afterward.
Natalie meticulously planned the attack, making a cardboard model of the school and creating a detailed schedule. She communicated online about her fascination with school shootings and weapons. After the incident, a restraining order was issued against Alexander Paffendorf, who had communicated with Natalie about attacking a government building. Jeffrey Rupnow later expressed regret over teaching his daughter about firearms and urged others to regularly change gun safe combinations.
The charges against Rupnow follow a national trend of holding parents legally accountable when children commit school shootings. He was arrested early Thursday and is being held in Dane County Jail, with an initial court appearance scheduled.
Prosecutors say he opened fire in Rogers Park, firing a gun with each hand, and took cover behind a van containing his 8 kids.
When he was done, he allegedly tossed the guns into the van with the kids —and their mom put a shotgun in the vehicle, too!
https://t.co/C2xMfayOeE
Wisconsin prosecutors on Thursday charged the father of a teenage girl who killed a teacher and fellow student in a school shooting last year with allowing her access to the semiautomatic pistols she used in the attack. https://t.co/R5jBY4Ec60
A Wisconsin father was arrested and charged with multiple felonies Thursday in connection with his teenage daughter, who killed two people in the Abundant Life Christian School shooting last year, officials said.
https://t.co/MH84oDmCAi
