New Delhi:
An image on her father’s Facebook account showing her wearing a shirt from a rock band has emerged as one the many hints that point to the Wisconsin school shooter’s obsession with several school shooters, including 1999 Columbine killer Eric Harris.
Harris was also seen wearing German industrial rock band KMFDM’s shirt before he, accompanied by another teen, opened fire at Colorado’s Columbine High School, killing 12 students and a teacher, as per NY Post.
In stark resemblance to the shooting 25 years ago, 15-year-old Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow also shot herself dead after opening fire in the classroom of the Abundant Life Christian School earlier this week, killing a fellow student and a teacher.
As police in Wisconsin interview friends and family and examine the online presence of the girl to understand the motive behind the shooting, a Tumblr account linked to Rupnow was found to feature a picture of Parkland high school shooter Nicholas Cruz and posts on the 2007 Finland school shooting.
Natalie ‘Samantha’ Rupnow wearing a KMFDM shirt.
Further, an X account linked to her shows a person flashing an “OK” sign, which Anti-Defamation League says is a gesture linked to other school shooters. It also shared videos from the 2015 Sweden school stabbing attack and a suicide video from a gun range, NY Post reported.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told CNN on Tuesday that investigators are also looking for a possible manifesto that the shooter may have left behind. Barnes said police are also examining her cell phone and computer to see if there any transmissions between her and someone else. Other questions investigators are trying to answer are how the 15-year-old obtained a gun and whether her parents were negligent.
Two wounded students were in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, while several other victims were wounded and expected to survive.
School shootings have been a macabre routine in the United States, with 322 of them this year, 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. Only about 3% of all U.S. mass shootings perpetrated by females, studies show.
Inputs from agencies
