Late on Monday night, authorities identified 15-year-old Natalie "Samantha" Rupnow as the shooter who slaughtered a student and a teacher at Abundant Life Christian School, a private K-12 academy in Madison, Wisconsin. Six others were wounded, including two students who are still in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.
Rupnow, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was a student there after reportedly transferring to Abundant Life this academic year.
I was the first to break the news that the deceased mass shooter at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisc. is a 15-year-old girl named Natalie Lynn Rupnow. Here's what I discovered: https://t.co/Pxp1xFGIAD
— Andy Ngo 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) December 17, 2024
She went by "Samantha," which was the name that allegedly appeared on her school identification card. However, it appears the suspect was not "transgender," despite initial rumors, but a radical feminist who wanted to annihilate all men.
Soon after news broke of the shooting, Rupnow's friends flagged the X account, "@Postalbrained," purportedly belonging to the shooter. Moments before the mass shooting, the X account—created this month—posted a photograph of an individual flashing the "OK" hand symbol in what looks like a school bathroom. The account also tweeted a link to a manifesto on Google Docs; however, the document was not publicly accessible at the time of publication.
A self-described friend of Rupnow has since taken control of the X account and locked it down.
According to investigative journalist Andy Ngo, she posted a purported "sneak peek" of the manifesto to her Discord account, "@brainedout." In the earlier version, Rupnow allegedly discussed a desire to "exterminate" all males, including infants and the elderly, in a rant apparently inspired by extremist culture among fringe social media circles.
"[W]omen are the only hope for this wretched world," the declaration read, saying some women have also been "brainwashed" to "worship these f**king parasites." The writing further lamented these women who have "internalized the patriarchy" and are "always begging for male approval and validation."
"Its disgusting," the preview continued. "I realize the truth men are irredeemable [...] They cant be reformed or redeemed. Theyre a f**king scourge upon the earth. The only solution is to total exterminate them [...] Every single male must be wiped out, from babies to the elderly. Only then can women be free to create a new world."
"ill be a pioneer," the post's author declared. "ill be the first to take the first step. i dont care if theyr fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, teachers, police, and especially n—ers or politicians. ive been craving to kill them all."
"This is my mission," the writer went on. "[O]nly when their parasitic sludge has been expunged from this earth is when then the world will be clean and women can start over. It's the only way."
Reduxx's editor-in-chief Anna Slatz published all six pages of Rupnow's alleged manifesto—provided by a source claiming to be Rupnow's long-distance boyfriend, whom she had never met in person and only interacted with online.
Here I will include some screenshots of the manifesto.
— pagliacci the hated 🌝 (@Slatzism) December 16, 2024
I am very hesitate to post the whole thing not because the content is graphic in any way but I am worried it will violate the terms of service, and am not intending to do that.
This is page one and page two in full. pic.twitter.com/WjLG3rluyP
Rupnow reportedly sent him a full copy of the manifesto, titled "War Against Humanity," via WhatsApp on the day of the shooting. However, he didn't open it until hours later when she was already deceased and the killings were committed.
The manifesto revealed that she had planned to fatally shoot herself a long time ago but felt that carrying out a mass shooting "maybe better for evolution than just one stupid boring suicide."
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said authorities have not been able to verify the manifesto's authenticity but are "certainly aware" that it's been circulating online. Barnes said they've yet to locate "the person who posted it."
Local law enforcement is now working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate the writings in question.
Barnes also addressed speculations about the shooter's gender identity. In response to a question asking if Rupnow identified as "transgender," Barnes said that information wasn't of any importance. "Quite frankly, I don't think that's important at all," he replied.
"I don't know whether [Rupnow] was transgender or not," Barnes said, bluntly adding: "I don't think that whatever happened today has anything to do with how she or he or they may have wanted to identify. And I wish people would kind of leave their own personal biases out of this."
"Whether or not she was, he was, they were transgender is something that may come out later, but for what we're doing right now, today, literally eight hours after a mass shooting in a school in Madison, it is of no consequence at this time," he stressed.
According to authorities, Rupnow brought a handgun to school Monday morning and opened fire around 11 a.m. inside a mixed-grade study hall. During the gunfire, a second-grade teacher in a nearby classroom called 911, and police arrived on the scene within three minutes. Rupnow was pronounced dead on the way to a local hospital.
SWAT teams have since raided Rupnow's home, located approximately eight miles north of the school. Officers were seen busting through the front door, knocking it off its hinges, and thoroughly conducting a search of the property, Milwaukee-based WISN reported. Agents used tactical vehicles to swarm the residence, with witnesses reporting what sounded like "a bomb going off" when the entry was breached. Some neighbors saw police throw stun grenades, which detonated with a bright flash and loud bang.
Investigators are still working to determine a motive, which they suspect was "a combination of factors," and where the handgun originated.
An administrator confirmed that the school does not have a resource officer or metal detectors, but stressed that there are "a number of security protocols in place," such as surveillance cameras regularly monitoring the hallways.
"We also have other safety measures throughout the building. But as to a metal detector, no, we do not have," school relations director Barbara Wiers told reporters. "We do abide by the policy of visual scans every morning as students come into the building, so every student is visually scanned before they go [...] up to their locker spaces or into their classrooms."
So far, Rupnow's parents are reportedly cooperating with officials, and police are not looking to criminally charge them in connection to the school shooting "at this time."
Barnes declined to offer additional details about Rupnow, partly out of respect for her family. "He lost someone as well," Barnes said of Rupnow's father. "And so we're not going to rush the information. We'll take our time and make sure we do our due diligence."
Rupnow reportedly posted pictures suggesting she was gifted a handgun for her birthday. Page 4 of the manifesto said the murder weapon was obtained through "lies, manipulation, and my fathers [sic] stupidity."
On page four of her manifesto, Samantha says that she acquired the weapons to commit the shooting through “lies, manipulation, and my father’s stupidity.”
— pagliacci the hated 🌝 (@Slatzism) December 17, 2024
Her boyfriend says he was aware that there was a gun safe in her house, but does not know how she got access to it. pic.twitter.com/EHaX2vOVXQ
Much of the manifesto allegedly ranted about Rupnow's strained relationship with her divorced parents, whom she referred to as "scum" and "failures for everything they've done to me."
"My so-called family never included me because I was too weird for them," Rupnow reportedly wrote. She implied her father was an alcoholic and her mother a drug addict who overdosed once when she was about 12-years-old: "I don't care if she would have survived or died from it but yet she was still here, doesn't mean she actually was in my life."
Court records confirm that Rupnow bounced between residences, as often as every two to three days, in accordance with the custody agreement. She previously lived primarily with her mother following their first divorce. When they remarried and separated again, shared custody of Rupnow was split more evenly between them. Then, when they ultimately divorced for a third time, Rupnow lived mostly with her father. Rupnow was enrolled in therapy to help guide decisions about which parent she would spend weekends with.
According to Rupnow's alleged online activity, she obsessed extensively over school shooters and death, particularly the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
In mirror selfies, Rupnow often wore a shirt promoting the KMFDM rock band, whose lyrics (to several songs, such as "Son of a Gun," "Stray Bullet," and "Waste") were referenced by Columbine shooter Eric Harris on his website.
According to Ngo, under the username "@crossixir," Rupnow frequently commented on violent videos uploaded to WatchPeopleDie.TV, a forum for graphic footage depicting suicides and slayings.
Her digital footprint, per Ngo, also includes a number of Spotify playlists featuring themes of suicide and killings as well as a Tumbler account sharing content about mass shooters.
Slatz's manifesto screenshots show she expressed deep admiration for Arda Küçükyetim, a Turkish neo-Nazi who committed a stabbing spree in Eskişehir earlier this year. She said Küçükyetim, whom Rupnow allegedly called "an Ultimate saint," inspired her.
On Page 2 of the manifesto, Rupnow reportedly wrote, "N—ers though, WORSE, once you sleep with one you are one."