The 15-year-old boy who gunned down a Christian school in Wisconsin killed a substitute teacher who was filling in for another educator who went on vacation this week, parents said.
Natalie Rapnow went on a shooting spree at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison on Tuesday, fatally shooting another teenage girl, injuring five others, and then taking her own life.
A substitute teacher was running study hall for students when Rapnow burst in and pulled the trigger. Lindsey O'Connor, whose daughter and son attend Abundant Life Christian Academy in Madison. I just told Wisconsin..
“The teacher died protecting her class. Many more lives could have been taken. She (Rapnow) had multiple rounds of ejections,” she said.
The teenage gunman was “a very selfish person” and was known to wear “a collared shirt, tie, jeans and combat boots” to school, his mother said.
Rapnow said she “thought it strange” that her daughter McKinzie's locker was strewn next to Rapnow's house, but after a month of school, she decided to be nice to her daughter. [began] I'm talking to her,” O'Connor said.
Rapnow, known as Samantha or Sam to her classmates, regularly “drank a lot of energy drinks,” she said.
O'Connor described her as “a weird version of preppy in a way” and said her group of friends dressed up in shirts and ties.
Rapnow didn't have many friends and was “very isolated,” the guardian added.
According to her mother, the suspect appeared to have had problems in her home life and was constantly texting with her boyfriend from Germany, whom she met online.
“She died a broken girl. She died without being heard, but she found solace in the many people who did not promote her goodness,” O'Connor said.
O'Connor added that she told people she needed to go to the nurse before the shooting, but it's not clear if she actually went.
Rapnow allegedly fired a handgun inside the K-12 school around 11 a.m., killing a substitute teacher and another teenage boy.
Six people, five students and one teacher, were also injured.
According to officials, two of the students remain in the hospital.
Authorities have not yet identified the victim.
