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The father of the 15-year-old accused of fatally shooting a student and a teacher at the Abundant Life School in Wisconsin last December has been arrested.
Madison prosecutors have brought criminal charges against Jeffrey Rupnow, the 42-year-old father of school shooter Natalie Rupnow, who died by suicide after the shooting. He faces two felony counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a minor causing death and one felony count of contributing to the delinquency of a child, records show.
The 15-year-old opened fire using a handgun in the private Christian K-12 school’s halls on the morning of December 16, 2024, killing two and injuring six others. Five months after the tragedy, her father was arrested.
When investigators searched the home, they found a “manifesto” titled “War Against Humanity,” a cardboard model of the school and plans for the shooting in the teen’s bedroom.
“The items recovered were disturbing,” Acting Madison Police Chief John Patterson said at a Thursday press conference. “They were alarming and they would have led any average person to the concern of violence.”
Investigators recovered 20 shell casings as well as two guns — a 9mm and a .22 caliber firearm — at the school. Both guns were purchased legally in stores in Dane County, Wisconsin, the police chief said. Only one was used in the deadly shooting and the other was found in the girl’s bag.
Rupnow told detectives he purchased both for his daughter, one for Christmas in 2023 and the other the following summer, the complaint says. She paid for some of the second gun with her own money, but it was registered in his name, the filing states.
Upon a search of his home, authorities found three rifles and six handguns in the house. Eight of the firearms were found locked in a safe and one other was found in a bedframe drawer.
They were all purchased legally, Patterson said. “There was a gun safe in the home. Based on our investigation, it did not stop the teen from having regular access to the firearms.”
Police questioned the teen’s mother about whether her daughter was allowed to use her father’s weapons when he wasn’t around. According to the a police complaint, her mother replied: “No, he’s supposed to keep them locked up.”
After the deadly shooting, Facebook photos surfaced capturing the teen at a firing range pointing a gun and wearing a t-shirt similar to one worn by the Columbine killer Eric Harris.
“Going to the [shooting] range was like a therapy for him,” the complaint says of Rupnow, who also said going to the range was a way to “bond” with his daughter.
He also noted, according to the complaint, that she had been in therapy until the spring before the shooting and admitted she made some troubling “outbursts,” saying things like: “I hate my life, I’m going to kill myself.”
In her six-page manifesto, she wrote: “I got the weapons by lies and manipulation, and my fathers stupidity.”
She also discussed “being afraid of other kids and how she’s grown to hate people,” the filing says. The teen also mentioned the names of mass killers, including one whom she described as “An Ultimate saint.”
He’s being held in Dane County Jail and set to appear in court on Friday.
