Shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison: Teenage student, teacher killed; 6 students injured

A teacher and a teenage student were killed and six students were injured Monday in a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, police said.

Police had briefly mentioned a higher death toll, but later revised their information.

The suspect, a teenage student at the school, also died, police said. The suspect used a handgun, police said.

The motive is unclear, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said at a news conference.

Of the six injured students, two are in critical condition and their lives are in danger, Barnes said. Four other students suffered non-life-threatening injuries, he said.

Officers responded to the report of the active shooter around 10:57 a.m. The suspect was dead when police arrived and no officers fired their weapons, Barnes said.

The shooting was “confined to a single space,” but it’s unclear whether it was a classroom or a hallway, the chief said.

“I’ve never seen so many police cars in my life – just blue and red lights lining the school, lining the streets. The firefighters, the EMTs, everyone was there,” invading the usually quiet neighborhood, John Diaz De Leon told ABC News Live. .

He said he saw police at the scene armed with long guns and older students running out of the school and across the parking lot.

“Later, very slowly and in a more orderly manner, the younger students, holding hands, were allowed to walk across the parking lot,” he said.

The school has been cleared, Barnes said. There is no danger to the community, he said.

The suspect’s family is cooperating, the police chief said.

Authorities are working to reunite students with their parents. Approximately 390 students in grades K-12 attend the school.

The police chief said he began his career as a teacher.

“We owe it to our community to do everything we can to ensure [schools are] not only a special place, but a safe place,” he said.

“I hoped this day would never come to Madison,” said Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.

She emphasized the need to prevent gun violence and said she wants the community and the country to ensure that “no public official is ever forced to hold this position again.”

Jill Underly, Wisconsin’s superintendent of public instruction, also highlighted the need for change, saying in a statement: “This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to protect our children and our educators to ensure that Such horrors will never happen again. We will not rest until we find solutions that make our schools safer. »

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement, “There are no words to describe the devastation and heartbreak we feel,” calling the shooting a “heartbreaking tragedy.”

Evers said he and his wife are “praying for the families and loved ones of those whose lives have been so senseless, as well as the educators, staff and entire Abundant Life school community.”

“It is unthinkable that a child or an educator would wake up one morning and go to school and never come home,” he said. “This should never happen, and I will never accept this as a foregone conclusion and never stop working to change it.”

This is a developing story. Please check again for updates.