Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes delivers updates about the Dec. 16, 2024 school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison's east side. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Just days after he was thrust into the national spotlight following the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School that killed two people, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes was announced as the new chief of the Seattle Police Department. 

Barnes’ acceptance of the job in Seattle comes as the Madison police are still investigating the shooting on Monday and the motives behind the 15-year-old girl’s attack. Authorities have discovered that the girl was in contact with a 20-year-old California man who was planning his own attack on a government building. 

Since the shooting, Barnes has been an outspoken critic of hardening the defenses of community schools. At his first press conference after the shooting, he was asked if the school had metal detectors and responded that schools shouldn’t have such measures installed. 

“I’m not aware that the school had metal detectors, nor should schools have metal detectors,” he said. “It’s a school. It’s a safe space.”

Prior to the shooting, Barnes had been named a finalist for the Seattle job. 

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell noted in a statement that Barnes has successfully brought crime down in Madison and promised to continue to work to combat gun violence.

“Earlier this week, under tragic circumstances, the nation received its introduction to Chief Shon Barnes. We all saw firsthand what our team has known since we began this recruitment process — that Chief Barnes possesses the impressive leadership capabilities, compassionate approach, and dedication to effective police work needed to continue moving our Police Department forward,” Harrell said. “I’ve spoken with Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway to express my condolences and support as they process this week’s tragedy and to share my continued commitment to fighting for solutions to the gun violence epidemic that impacts every corner of our country through our shared work with the U.S. Conference of Mayors.”

Barnes took over as chief in Madison in early 2021 as the city responded to an increase in violent crime and the protests against police violence that occurred across the country in 2020. During his tenure, Barnes has overseen the department’s effort to equip officers with body cameras. 

He was also named a finalist for the chief jobs in Chicago and San Jose, California, despite telling Isthmus in 2021 that he was committed to Madison “for the long haul.” 

Rhodes-Conway said in a statement that Barnes’ collaborative approach was important to the establishment of Dane County’s Public Health Violence Prevention Unit and the Madison Fire Department’s CARES program, noting that the city is “safer and more resilient” because of his work. 

“I would like to congratulate Chief Shon Barnes on his new opportunity in Seattle and thank him for his service to Madison,” Rhodes-Conway said. “The Chief has been a steady, forward-thinking leader throughout his tenure and he will be greatly missed.”

She also commended his work this week responding to the school shooting.

“The tragedy this week has been all-consuming, and we still have much healing to do as a community,” she said. “I’m grateful that the Madison Police Department responded to this unthinkable crisis with the utmost professionalism and compassion. Chief Barnes was at the center of coordinating local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies during an unprecedented moment. He did so admirably.”

The Madison Police and Fire Commission is responsible for finding Barnes’ replacement. Rhodes-Conway said in the coming weeks the commission will outline a search plan and during the recruitment process an interim chief will be named.

Several hundred people gathered on the Capitol Square in Madison Tuesday evening for a vigil following a school shooting Monday that left three dead and injured six other people. (Erik Gunn | Wisconsin Examiner)

A day after a student killed two people, injured six others and took her own life at a Madison private school, public officials and community members mourned and processed their own trauma from the devastating violence.

“It is OK to ask for what you need to take care of your own mental health,” said Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway at a vigil on Madison’s Capitol Square Tuesday evening. “Please. Please. Let us be a community where it is okay to ask for help. Let us be a community where, when we see someone who needs help, that we are the first to extend our hands and to offer resources where they are needed. Let us be a community that takes care of each other. That is where our focus is right now — on caring for everyone who has been impacted by this gun violence.”

The vigil was organized by the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County. “We come together to begin the healing journey for our children and to support one another in this face of another school shooting that has hit our community,” said Michael Johnson, the organization’s president. “Let us remind each other that we are loved, that we are valued and we are not alone in this difficult time.”

“Violence in our community is preventable,” said state Rep. Sheila Stubbs (D-Madison). “We must not stand silent, but instead be moved to action.” She quoted Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist: “At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backwards by fear and division.”

Elected officials have united in expressing grief at the shooting. Following through on his announcement Monday, Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Tuesday morning calling for the U.S. and Wisconsin flags to be flown at half staff on all state buildings through Sunday, Dec. 22, as well as on the date of each victim’s funeral.

In the well of the U.S. House Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, flanked by a bipartisan group of six of Wisconsin’s eight House members, led a moment of silence in recognition of those affected by the shooting. 

“These were innocent lives, innocent victims of senseless violence, and we mourn their loss with their families and loved ones and the entire Abundant Life Community,” Pocan said. He thanked law enforcement, first responders and health care workers who went to the scene or treated the victims. He emphasized as well that not just the dead and wounded, but the school community, its students, staff and parents, are all victims.

Pocan, like many Democratic lawmakers, has long been an outspoken advocate for tougher gun laws aimed at curbing gun violence. He alluded to that cause in his House speech, saying, “We must do better and we must turn these moments of silence into moments of action.”

But Pocan demurred from discussing specific policy talking points.

At a WisPolitics panel, Assembly Democratic leader Rep. Greta Neubauer cited direct policy changes that Democrats in the Legislature have tried in vain to pass over the last several years, only to be blocked by large Republican majorities: red flag laws that enable authorities to take guns from people perceived to be dangerous and universal background checks on all gun purchases. With a narrower GOP majority in both houses, she said, she hopes measures such as those could advance in the session starting in January.

Meanwhile, on the same panel, incoming Republican Senate President Mary Felzkowski highlighted concerns ranging from violent entertainment to social media — rather than firearms — as potential targets for regulation to reduce gun violence. 

In a television interview, Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) told Emilee Fannon of TV station CBS 58 that he would support a request by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul for $2.3 million in the state’s 2025-27 budget to continue permanent funding for the Office of School Safety in the Wisconsin Department of Justice. The office provides K-12 schools with resources to improve security measures and trains school staff on handling traumatic events and crisis prevention and response. It also runs a round-the-clock tip line.

The office became a partisan flashpoint in the Legislature’s 2023-25 budget deliberations after Republicans rejected funding and Democratic lawmakers attacked their decision. The state DOJ subsequently extended its operation by redirecting $1.3 million in federal pandemic relief funds.  

In the hours after the shooting, elected officials were unanimous in their expressions of grief while dividing along party lines in their policy responses.

 “Today’s tragedy is shocking, senseless and heartbreaking,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said Monday. 

“My thoughts and prayers are with the students, parents and faculty who will have to live with the trauma and grief of this day for the rest of their lives,” he said. “There are no words to adequately express condolences to those who have lost loved ones or to express gratitude for the first responders who were on scene for this violence.”

The statement made no reference either for or against legislation to address gun violence. 

Democratic lawmakers weren’t so reticent. 

“Right now, it’s hard to think of a greater moral failing as a nation and society than our inaction and unwillingness to keep our children safe from gun violence,” said Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison). “We do not have to accept this as an ordinary part of life. No other country does. Indeed – guns are the number one cause of death for American children, and that is a policy choice.”

At a news conference hours after the shooting Monday, Rhodes-Conway largely kept her focus on trauma and healing. “I am on record that I think we need to do better in our country and our community to prevent gun violence,” she said, adding that solutions should be the work of the whole community. A little later, she added: “But first and foremost, what needs to be a priority for all of us is supporting our young people, and that is where our community’s attention needs to turn at this point in time.”

And at Tuesday night’s vigil, she kept the attention on those who had immediately responded to the crisis. “Our community showed up in a big way, and is still continuing to show up,” Rhodes-Conway said. “Ultimately, that’s what gives me hope.”

Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes delivers updates about the Dec. 16, 2024 school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison's east side. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

This story was updated on Monday at 9:39 p.m.

Three people are dead and another six are in the hospital after a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison’s east side Monday morning. The shooter, who was a student at the school, is among the dead, according to Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes.

Two of the injured victims, both students, remain in critical condition while the other four have non-life threatening injuries, Barnes said at a mid-afternoon press conference. 

Barnes identified the shooter at a Monday night press conference as Natalie Rupnow, 15, who went by the name “Samantha,” and said she appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Gov. Tony Evers issued a statement decrying the shootings and announced he would order flags to fly half-staff across the state through Sunday, Dec. 22.

“As a father, a grandfather, and as governor, it is unthinkable that a kid or an educator might wake up and go to school one morning and never come home. This should never happen, and I will never accept this as a foregone reality or stop working to change it,” Evers said.

“Today my focus is on supporting these families and kids and the Abundant Life community, and the state stands ready to support them and the efforts of local law enforcement through what will undoubtedly be difficult days ahead.”

Police responded to the shooting at the K-12 private school shortly before 11 a.m., Barnes said. While clearing the building, officers found the person they believe to be responsible already dead, along with the other two people who were killed, one a teacher and the other a student. No officers fired their weapons during the incident.

Police searched a home on Madison’s North Side late Monday afternoon and evening and said the search was in connection with the shooting.

The shooter used a handgun, Barnes said. Her family was cooperating in the investigation, but there was no immediate information about what the individual’s motives may have been.

“You ask me about why, but I don’t know why, and I felt like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” Barnes said.

In a statement, President Joe Biden called the shooting “shocking and unconscionable” and urged Congress to enact “Universal background checks. A national red flag law. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.” 

Biden was briefed earlier Monday about the shooting according to the White House press pool. 

At an earlier news conference, Barnes lamented the incident and its impact on the school and the community. 

“​​I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas, every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever,” Barnes said. “These types of trauma don’t just go away. We need to figure out how to piece together what exactly happened right now. My heart is heavy for my community. My heart is heavy for Madison. We have to come together as a community and figure out what happened here and make sure that it doesn’t happen at any other place that should be a refuge for students in our community.”

Families of students showed up at the school before noon and at mid-afternoon were still lined up in their cars down Buckeye Road on Madison’s East Side waiting to be reunited with their children. Officials said they would not release information about the victims until families had been notified. 

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway emphasized the community-wide impact of the incident.

“This is a whole of government response,” Rhodes-Conway said. “It is not just police and fire. It is not just the city of Madison, and we have folks from all around the country, we have folks from multiple agencies engaged in both the initial immediate response and the ongoing support.”

She and Dane County Executive Melissa Agard emphasized the importance and availability of mental health assistance to anyone who may have been touched by the incident.

“If anyone needs mental health support as a result of this incident and the coverage of it, I encourage them to reach out” via the 9-8-8 emergency mental health line, which takes calls and text messages, Rhodes-Conway said. “It is incredibly important that we take care of our community in this very difficult time.”

“To all of those who are grieving in our community, please know that you’re not alone,” Agard said. “Dane County stands with you. We’re here to support you in any way possible — please reach out and ask for help.”

Barnes said he has been in contact with officials at the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI. 

Although the Madison Police Department had earlier reported five deaths in the shooting, spokesperson Stephanie Fryer said that was based on information from the hospital where the victims were taken. Hospital personnel later updated the number of deaths to three people, she said. 

This story has been updated with new information from the Madison police as well as city and Dane County officials.

Madison is facing a $22 million budget deficit that city officials say is made more challenging to fix because of police and fire spending requirements imposed by the state. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Finding a solution to the City of Madison’s $22 million budget hole has been made more difficult by a provision in the local government revenue law passed last year that requires the 41 municipalities with more than 20,000 residents to certify annually that funding amounts for police and fire departments have been maintained. 

Those maintenance of effort requirements, according to Sam Munger, the chief of staff to Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, have put a frustrating constraint on the city’s budget process by preventing any cuts to the two largest departments in the city government. 

The shared revenue law, Act 12, passed through both chambers of the Legislature with bipartisan support, was signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers last June. Prior to the law’s enactment, the budget situation for local and county governments across the state had gotten bleak. Milwaukee was staring down a fiscal cliff while much smaller local governments with less ability to rely on property taxes faced problems of their own. 

Shared revenue funding is uncategorized, meaning local governments can use it for anything. The money largely comes from sales and income taxes collected by the state. For decades, the amount of shared revenue provided to local governments had stagnated even while inflation increased the cost of government services. 

The problem had gotten so dire that the shared revenue negotiations dominated the legislative session. Despite Democratic attempts to pass a “clean bill” Republicans in control of both chambers succeeded in including a number of maintenance of effort requirements. Three years after protests against police violence had spurred activist calls to “defund the police,” Republicans included the provision to discourage any local government from cutting police budgets. 

“We have a maintenance of effort requirement, so that you can’t defund the police,” Vos said during the floor debate on the bill. “We have requirements to say that going forward we want everybody who works in local government to be focused on merits. We wanted to ensure that every single person who is involved in local government focuses on those core programs. That was done in negotiation.”

If a municipality fails to prove it has maintained its police and fire spending, it will receive a 15% reduction in shared revenue payments the following year. In July, local governments were required to prove their maintenance of effort to the state Department of Revenue. According to records obtained by the Wisconsin Examiner, every municipality in the state subject to the requirements maintained public safety spending. 

But while the Act 12 negotiations helped provide a sunnier financial outlook to the city of Milwaukee and smaller communities saw massive increases in the per capita amount of funding received from the state, Madison saw less benefit. The city’s shared revenue payment increased by $11 per resident, among the lowest in the state. After the law’s passage, Madison receives the second-lowest amount of state aid per capita, only the Village of Merton in Waukesha County receives less. 

As Madison city officials work through the budget writing process this year, they’re facing a $22 million deficit.

Munger says that Madison faces distinct challenges from Milwaukee. Madison doesn’t operate its own pension system and can rely on the taxes generated by the relatively higher property values in the area. But the state capital is still facing a dramatic budget shortfall because of the lack of support received from the state even as the city experiences rapid population growth. 

“Fundamentally, we are in the same situation as Milwaukee, which is the state is extracting money and not returning it, and [the Legislature] has gone out of its way to rig the state formulas on shared revenue, so that we get a really tiny amount. Madison, by most measures, gets the smallest per capita amount of shared revenue in the state by a pretty wide margin. So we’re a few years behind Milwaukee, but we’re getting there,” says Munger.  “We’re hitting a fiscal cliff, and it’s only going to get worse, because our costs continue to go up and our revenue continues to stay flat. So we’re going to have to go to the state and ask them for some version of what Milwaukee got, which means we are going to face the same devil’s bargain that they did.”

To fill the hole, the city has asked voters to approve a referendum that would increase property taxes. The average homeowner would see property taxes increase by $5 annually for every $100,000 of property value. State law institutes a levy limit that caps the amount of property taxes a municipality can institute unless residents agree to tax themselves more. The referendum would raise that limit. 

But if the referendum fails, cuts to city services will be necessary, city officials say. Rhodes-Conway has asked departments to submit proposals for 5% budget cuts, which could mean up to 250 city workers are  laid off. 

Proposed cuts have included closing the city’s Goodman pool and reducing transit services. 

Munger says that facing these cuts with the paltry amount of increased aid the city received through Act 12 and the additional constraint imposed by the maintenance of effort requirements have made budget decisions more challenging. Collectively, the police and fire departments accounted for about 41% of the city’s $405,368,750 2024 budget, but because of Act 12 the city can’t turn to those line items as it looks for services to cut. 

“Police is our single biggest department, and fire is our second biggest,” Munger says. “So broadly speaking, there’s no question that police and fire would be a more significant part of the calculus if not for the maintenance of effort requirements. So it really significantly ties our hands.”

Additionally, the penalties for not complying with the maintenance of effort requirements are just high enough to discourage the city from making cuts anyway because any additional room in the budget created by the cuts would be wiped out by the lost funding. 

The summer of 2020 in Madison did see protests against police violence and some activist calls for cuts to police spending, however those calls were never seriously considered as part of the city budgeting process and four years later, the calls have subsided. Munger says that Republicans in the Legislature included the maintenance of effort provisions without considering how they would influence future budget decisions. 

“I think it’s fair to say the political rationale [for MOE requirements] has been long forgotten,” he says. “It’s pretty divorced from the current budget debate. And I think the Legislature used it to score political points in that moment without real thought about what the consequences would be for cities and municipalities and towns, and for local governments now dealing with the consequences in a way that has nothing to do with that debate.”

Ari Brown, a researcher at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, says that in a hypothetical case in which a municipality were actually cutting police and fire budgets, that’s more likely to be evidence of genuine financial struggles than a sign that the city council is controlled by anti-police advocates. 

“So to the extent that we actually do see communities where there’s less police funding from year to year, especially in these larger municipalities that are subject to these reporting requirements … It is probably genuine budget pressures that are forcing, you know, forcing the issue in some way,” Brown says. “In a lot of these bigger communities, law enforcement is the No. 1, if not one of the top spending categories.”

In Wisconsin, where municipal governments have a lot of responsibilities, Brown adds, “all of these cross-cutting pressures are going to impact when you do see something like a police department that is genuinely spending less from one year to the next, there are other things going on than just ideological shifts.”

Aside from the property tax levy limits and the maintenance of effort requirements, municipal governments are also subject to expenditure restraint requirements — meaning they can have state aid cut if expenses increase by too much — and limits on revenue that can be raised through fees. Jason Stein, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, says that all of these cross pressures can make for a convoluted budgeting process for city officials. 

“These laws were not always sort of completely written in such a way that they always mesh well with one another,” Stein says. Complying with the  maintenance of effort requirement for police and fire under Act 12 can mean cities must increase  spending. But to finance a spending increase they might need to go to referendum, which in turn can run afoul of state-mandated expenditure restraints, threatening state aid. 

“As there are more and more requirements on local government, then it is just more for the local leaders to think about,” Stein says of this Catch-22, “not just in terms of, do they have the willingness, do they have the will and the funding to comply, but also, are they able to keep up to date and remember all the requirements?”