More details are emerging about a shooting at UW-Platteville Monday which left two students dead. In a statement released Tuesday, the university said the UW-Platteville Police Department had responded to a call at Wilgus Hall, a student residence hall, for a “disturbance.” When officers arrived, they found two individuals with gunshot wounds.
One of the individuals police found on the scene has been identified as 22-year-old Kelsie Martin, who was transported to Southwest Health and then med-flighted to UW Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Martin was the Wilgus Hall Assistant Resident Director and a psychology major from Beloit, the university said in an update.
The other individual was identified as Hallie Helms, also 22 years old. Helms died on the scene, and preliminary autopsy findings indicate that Helms may have died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Helms was a Wilgus Hall resident, and an elementary education major from Baraboo.
Final exams for the remainder of the week have been cancelled. Students with any questions are encouraged to reach out to the dean’s office for their individual college. Students are encouraged to reach out to counseling resources. University counseling will be offering walk-in urgent sessions Wednesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and toll free counseling can be reached at 844-602-6680 or 720-272-0004.
University officials and law enforcement have been tight-lipped about the incident, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. A shelter-in-place order was issued as a large police presence gathered on the campus Monday. The order lasted for about an hour until 5 p.m. Gov. Tony Evers said he was being briefed on the situation and will remain in close contact with university officials.
UW-Platteville enrolls around 5,800 students, with Wilgus Hall, one of 10 residence buildings, housing 230 students , according to the university’s website. Over 2,800 students live on campus. The shooting occurred at the end of the spring semester and on the first day of final exams.
Some students reported seeing ambulances on scene. One student, 24-year-old Amanda Sawatzki, reportedly heard the voices of two people arguing in the afternoon, and then later heard a loud bang while she was working on a senior seminar paper.
At a 7 p.m. press conference on Monday, UW-Platteville Police Chief Joseph Hallman wouldn’t confirm whether a shooting had occurred, or whether there had been any injuries. Hallman and university officials called it an isolated incident, and said it is being actively investigated by police.
Madison Police Acting Chief John Patterson speaks at a press conference Thursday about the arrest of Jeffrey Rupnow on charges that he illegally gave his daughter two handguns, including one that she used in the school shooting Dec. 16 at a Madison private school. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
The father of the teenager who shot and killed two people at a Madison private school and took her own life five months ago was arrested Thursday and charged with three felony counts in connection with the December shootings.
Jeffrey Rupnow, 42, was charged with two counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a person under the age of 18 and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. All are Class H felonies under Wisconsin law, subject to a fine of up to $10,000 or a prison sentence of up to six years, or both.
Rupnow was booked into the Dane County jail just before 5:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the jail’s online records.
He is the father of Natalie Rupnow, the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison’s east side who entered the school in the middle of the morning on Dec. 16, 2024,shot and killed a teacher and a student, wounded six other people and then took her own life, all within a matter of minutes.
According to the criminal complaint, which was unsealed Thursday after Rupnow’s early morning arrest, Rupnow purchased two guns for his daughter: a 22-caliber handgun and later a Glock 9 mm pistol — the weapon that was used in the shooting. He said Natalie helped pay for the Glock and he purchased it for her from a gun store, the complaint states.
“All of these weapons, including [a third] one that was about to be gifted to the same teen, were purchased legally,” Madison Police Department Acting Chief John Patterson said at a Thursday afternoon press conference.
“There was a gun safe in the home. Based on our investigation, it did not stop the teenager from having regular access” to the contents, he said.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the case “is a call and an action to hold parents accountable … if their children can access their firearms.”
Rhodes-Conway said she wanted to see the Legislature take up “a number of really common sense proposals that have been around for years” to reduce gun violence. Those include measures such as universal background checks before people can purchase a gun as well as “red flag” laws that empower the courts to remove guns from owners who may represent a credible threat to others.
“The other piece of this is really making sure that responsible gun owners are doing everything they can to make sure that those guns do not fall into the hands of people who should not have them,” she said.
Patterson said Rupnow has been cooperative with police throughout the investigation.
In interviews with police, Natalie’s parents as well as two friends described her behavior as depressed and sometimes angry at her parents, who are divorced.
“Why would a 15-year-old open fire in her school and murder a teacher, classmates, and injure six others? We may never fully understand that horror,” Patterson said. “We do know the teenager had a fascination with weapons and school shootings.”
The complaint states that in June 2022 Madison police officers told Jeffrey Rupnow “of high-risk behavior that [Natalie] was engaging in via the internet.” The complaint does not elaborate further on that report. “I can’t speak further to the follow-up that was done” at that time, Patterson said.
Patterson said the investigation remains open in the case. He declined to comment about reports that people in other states were in touch with Natalie Rupnow online.
According to the complaint, Jeffrey Rupnow told police he had 11 guns, including two that were considered Natalie’s. He told police his daughter became interested in guns after he took her to a friend’s farm to shoot guns about two years ago and that they would occasionally go to a shooting range.
Because of her interest, Rupnow told police he bought her a 22-caliber handgun and later the Glock, according to the complaint.
The complaint states that Rupnow described occasional comments by his daughter about wanting to kill herself, but that he generally viewed those remarks as attention-seeking behavior.
Rupnow told police he had a gun safe where he kept all of the guns, including those he had purchased for his daughter. The safe was locked with a security code. He told police he had not told his daughter the code itself, but that he had told her that it was his Social Security number backwards, in case she needed to get into it.
The complaint states that police found maps of the school and a cardboard mockup that appeared to be of the school building among Natalie Rupnow’s things at home.
Police also found notebooks and what Patterson called a “manifesto” — a six-page document titled “War Against Humanity.” That and other documents suggested a fascination with other mass shootings, including one in 2007 by an 18-year-old in Finland, which she noted in one of her writings took place two years after she was born.
In addition, police found and reviewed 30 sets of camcorder videos, some of them with Natalie handling weapons and some depicting what appeared to be animal mutilation, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, Natalie took both of her handguns to the school on Dec. 16, the day of the shooting, but apparently used only the Glock.
The complaint states she arrived at the school just before 10:40 a.m. and entered a classroom just before 10:50 a.m.
A student in the classroom, a study hall, told police that once in the classroom, Natalie held the gun with both hands and aimed it at the teacher who was sitting at her desk in the front of the room. The student said he heard gunshots and ran to the back of the room, where he hid behind a beanbag chair.
After the shooting stopped, the student, who was wounded in the leg, saw Natalie Rupnow lying on the floor on her back, with the gun in her hand. The student told police he removed the gun from her hand and put it in a drawer “because he wanted to make sure that no one else got a hold of it,” the complaint states. The police later retrieved the gun from the drawer.
The teacher, Erin Michelle West, and one student, Rubi Bergara, were both killed, according to the Dane County Medical Examiner’s office. Six other students were wounded. One remains hospitalized, Patterson said.
Bullets struck a school bus while it was transporting students with special needs in the Bronx, New York, reported ABC 7.
The incident occurred on Friday just before 2:20 p.m. The minibus drove through gunfire and pulled up to an address located about half a mile away from where the shooting took place.
Jose Polanco, a coworker of the school bus driver, told local news reporters that the driver told him he kept driving because his first thought was to get the children somewhere safe.
The bus was reportedly struck at least three times. One bullet struck the back window and two struck the side of the bus. The bus was transporting half a dozen students with special needs. No one inside the bus was injured.
Police said four suspects, all wearing black, were shooting at each other and the school bus got caught in the crossfire.
The shooting took place near a playground, with a school just down the block. The name of the school was not reported, at this writing. Teachers said the shooting sent the school into lockdown, sheltering nervous students and staff in place for about 30 minutes past dismissal.
The suspects fled on foot. One was wearing white stripes and black plants. The investigation is ongoing.
The Dover Police Department is investigating a shooting involving a teen after he was dropped off by his school bus, reported Coast News.
According to the news report, police responded to reports of gunfire on Wednesday afternoon at approximately 2:35 p.m. Investigators determined that a Capital School District bus had just dropped off a group of students from Dover High School, when the accused shooter began chasing a 16-year-old boy before opening fire.
Both individuals, who were not identified at this writing, were reportedly running as shots were fired, but no one was hurt.
The article states that the school bus driver followed safety protocols and quickly left the area to protect the remaining students on board. Police later confirmed that the school bus was not struck. However, there were active threats to the school.
It was unclear why the teen was targeted. Police stated that the victim was not cooperating with detectives and had not even provided a description of the shooter.
Dover police reportedly increased its presence at Dover High School for the remainder of the week.
Law enforcement and security expert Bret E. Brooks will address two facets of the safety and security discussion for student transportation at STN EXPO East.
Brooks has spoken on emergency management, threat detection and violence preparedness at various STN conferences. He will present two sessions in Concord, North Carolina this March. The first session Friday, March 21, “Understanding Violence in Modern Society and the Impact on School Transportation,” will give attendees an in-depth exploration into the complexities of violence in today’s society, including the impact of technology and media. Using real-world examples, data and expert perspectives, Brooks will explain how attendees can equip themselves with strategies to not only address violence in their communities but prevent it and collaborate to build a safer society that translates to safer routes to and from school.
The second general session, “Creating a Bus Captain Program for School Buses,” will be held on Saturday, March 22. This interactive session looks at how to create a successful school bus advocacy program that can not only aid safety efforts but provide a leadership role for students and encourage positive, respectful behavior of their peers and student transportation staff.
Attendees will receive a breakdown of designing and implementing a bus captain program, including details such as program development, age- appropriate responsibilities, communication and evaluation strategies. Brooks will explain how to reach the program goal of equipping students to be role-models, assist drivers and contribute to a safe bus environment.
Brooks is the senior consultant with Gray Ram Tactical and the training coordinator and policy advisor for the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Register by Feb. 14 to save $100 on main conference registration with Early Bird Savings. Browse conference agenda, explore unique experiences and register at stnexpo.com/east.
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