Warning: This article contains distressing subject matter.
An eight-year-old student from Wisconsin's Abundant Life Christian School has spoken out about what she witnessed when a teenage school shooter opened fire and killed two people.
One teenage student and one teacher died while six more were injured when the shooter, identified by police as 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name 'Samantha', began firing on Monday morning (December 16).
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After the shooting, Rupnow died from a gunshot wound that is believed to have been self-inflicted.
The school had been winding down in preparation for Christmas and was set to close after classes this week, but second-grader Nora Gottschalk has now described how the events took a sudden and shocking turn just before lunchtime on Monday.
Speaking to Channel 3000, Nora explained: “I was getting ready for lunch, and it was basically lunchtime... I just heard shouting and there was a teacher named Mrs. Slater, and she was like ‘My leg! Help! Help!’”
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The school went into lockdown, with Nora saying she was 'really scared' and 'really sad'.
The young girl also described how one of her classmates, a boy she said was named Noah, risked his life to try and help others by running out from under a table to conceal them behind a curtain.
“He risked his life to put the black curtain down,” she said.
Thankfully, Noah is alive and okay.
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Nora's father, Karl Gottschalk, recalled seeing ambulances and police on the road while he was on his way to work; around the same he received a text from his child's school to say there was an active shooter.
“Seeing 10, 12 15 ambulances really, really scared me, thinking that one of my children might be the one,” he continued. “It's going to take a lot of time and, you know, just a lot of consoling for everybody in the community.”
Karl was reunited with his family more than four hours after the shooting was reported.
“We’re all back and we are going to go home and be safe and hold each other,” he said.
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Parents and school administrators of Abundant Life Christian school have described it as a tight-knit community, according to CNN, consisting of about 420 students from kindergarten to high school.
Bethany Highman, a former student and now a parent of a child at the school, told CNN affiliate WMTV: “I pray with my kids every morning that this won’t happen, and it’s the world that we live in. God is good, God is gracious, and my kids are safe, my family is safe.”
In a statement released today (December 17), the City of Madison said police are still working to determine a motive.
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If you have been affected by the contents of this article, please find more information and support via Survivors Empowered on their website.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.
Emily Brown