A shooting at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, left five people dead on Monday, including the suspected shooter, a student at the school according to authorities, who said that five people were injured and that children were among the dead.
The shooting took place at Abundant Life Christian School, a private institution that teaches some 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade, the Madison Police Department said.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told a news conference that at least five people were killed in the incident, including the suspected shooter, identified as a juvenile who police officers found dead when they arrived at the school. The shooter’s identity was not yet known.
At least five people were transported from the scene to area hospitals, Barnes said.
The police chief said the shooting took place just before 11 a.m. local time.
“Today is a sad, sad day, not only for Madison, but for our entire country, where yet another police chief is doing a press conference to speak about violence in our community,” Barnes told reporters.
Barnes added: “Every child, every person in that building, is a victim, and will be a victim forever. These types of trauma don’t just go away.”
Video posted from the scene on social media showed a massive emergency response, including police, ambulance and fire vehicles.
Gun control and school safety have become major political and social issues in the U.S. where the number of school shootings has jumped in recent years.
There have been 322 school shootings this year in the U.S., according to the K-12 School Shooting Database website. That is the second highest total of any year since 1966, according to that database – topped only by last year’s total of 349 such shootings.
The epidemic of shootings has afflicted public and private schools alike in urban, suburban and rural communities.
Some have taken place in Christian schools. In March 2023, a former student at Covenant School, a private academy in Nashville, killed three children and three adults before being shot dead by law enforcement officers. Last year, two students aged 5 and 6 were shot at Feather River Adventist School near Oroville, California, by a gunman who later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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