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

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Suburban Collection Showplace on October 26, 2024 in Novi, Michigan. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

The story so far:

Around 24.4 crore people are eligible to vote for the U.S. presidential election slated for November 5. In 2020, two-thirds of the eligible voters voted. The next President of the U.S. will be decided less by these national numbers than by a few thousand voters in some key places, which are called battleground or swing States, thanks to the unique features of the country’s electoral system.

What transpired in the last two elections?

The last two elections of 2016 and 2020 demonstrated the outsize impact of the swing factor in several States, even as the country became more polarised. In 2020, President Joe Biden had a national lead of around 70 lakh votes over Donald Trump, but what mattered more were the small margins with which he won key States. Of around 67 lakh votes cast in Pennsylvania, Mr. Biden led over Mr. Trump by 81,660; in Michigan, he had 1.54 lakh more, of the total 54 lakh polled; in Wisconsin, Mr. Biden led by just 20,682 votes in a total of more than 32 lakh votes.

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In 2016, Mr. Trump had trailed his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton by two percentage points, which was in excess of 20 lakh votes, but he could still emerge as the winner because he won key swing States. For instance, he won Pennsylvania by 44,292 votes of the total 61.7 lakh votes polled; Wisconsin by 22,748 of the 30 lakh votes; and Michigan, by 10,704 of the 48 lakh votes polled.

How is the winner chosen?

The winner of the U.S. presidential contest is selected not by a majority of national popular votes, but by a majority in the electoral college of 538, which is 270. Members of the electoral college are apportioned between the States. Most U.S. States have a “winner-takes-it-all” system that allots all electors to the candidate who gets more popular votes. So, whether a candidate has one or one million votes more than their opponent in California, for instance, all 54 electoral college votes of the State, will be awarded to him or her.

Similarly, all 19 electoral college votes of Pennsylvania will be awarded to the winner of the popular votes within that State, regardless of the margin. This system could create the anomaly of a candidate winning the election, without winning more popular votes than the opponent, nationally. That is also why the main opponents this time, Mr. Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, are trying to turn the battleground States in their favour in the last lap of campaigning ahead of election day.

Which are the key States that will play a role in picking the winner?

Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, and North Carolina are the battleground States of 2024; and the contest between Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris is a dead heat, going by all opinion polls. The average polling error for more than five decades in the U.S. is 3.4%. In all the seven swing States, in nearly all the polls, the leading candidate has a lead well within this margin. Like the last two elections, the margins could be very narrow and these States will decide who will be the President for the next four years. It is also possible that most of these States could swing to either side, as it happened in the last two elections, rather than being evenly divided between the two.

Even a minor swing among significant voting blocs in these States could turn the tide either way. Both candidates are trying to tailor their messages, particularly targeting these States. For instance, Latinos make up nearly a quarter of Arizona’s voters. That possibly explains Mr. Trump’s recent attempts to portray his opponent as being disrespectful of the Catholic church. In Georgia, Black votes count considerably, and Mr. Trump has been trying to mobilise them behind his anti-immigration politics. Latest polling figures show Mr. Trump gaining more ground among Latinos and Blacks. Michigan, a State that turned Republican in 2016 and Democrat in 2020, has around two lakh Muslim voters. Democrats, and Ms. Harris, face a crisis of credibility among them, against the backdrop of the conflict in West Asia. They may not vote for Mr. Trump but could turn indifferent towards Ms. Harris. Mr. Trump had won North Carolina in 2016 and 2020, but Ms. Harris is making some new inroads, according to polls.

In the last stretch, there will be further concentration of firepower by both sides on the small numbers that count as big in the elections. Catching the swing voters in these States is what both candidates are focussing on now.

A Wisconsin elementary school teacher has been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with an 11-year-old student, just 3 months before her wedding, reported CBS. St Paul resident, Madison Bergmann, 24, is now facing serious charges, including first-degree child sexual assault involving a child under the age of 13. 

The complaint, filed in St Croix County on Thursday, revealed that police were alerted to concerning behaviour at River Crest Elementary School in Hudson. The report specifically cited inappropriate conduct between Ms Bergmann and a 5th-grade student.

Authorities were provided with screenshots of text exchanges between the victim and Ms Bergmann, found by the victim’s parents. She was reportedly texting the child “daily” and telling him how much she enjoyed “making out” with him and him touching her. These encounters allegedly took place within the school premises, during lunch breaks or after school hours, as per the police reports. 

The police also found a folder inside Ms Bergmann’s bag with the victim’s name on it, containing a number of handwritten notes detailing their physical interactions. The duration of the abuse remains unclear. However, Ms Bergmann revealed that she got the child’s phone number from his mother in December, during a winter break trip to the Afton Alps. This was also the month when she got engaged to her long-time boyfriend. She was set to get married three months later, in July, reported the NY Times.

The school’s Principal Kimberly Osterhues in a message to parents, “We are shocked and disturbed by this news. Our primary concern is for the well-being of the River Crest School community and the children affected.”

Ms Bergmann was released on a $25,000 bond and has been prohibited from entering school premises or attending school events. She will next appear in court on May 30th.

The mother of a missing 3-year-old boy and her boyfriend have been charged with child neglect, nearly a week after the child was last seen. According to Fox59, authorities in Wisconsin, US, are still searching for the little boy after he was sent to be with his mother’s boyfriend as a form of punishment. The boy, identified as Elijah Vue, was last seen on February 20 in the city of Twi Rivers while he was being watched by Jesse Vang, a man who was in a relationship with the boy’s mother, Katrina Baur. 

According to Fox59, Mr Vang, 39, told cops that he noticed that the 3-year-old was gone when he woke up from a nap at his home. He also said that he has been trying to help Elijah’s mother correct the little boy’s “bad behaviours”. 

Separately, Ms Baur, 31, said that her son has been in the care of Mr Vang for about a week. She added that Mr Vang is the “enforcer of rules” in the relationship, which is why she sent her son to stay with him. 

Citing the complaint, the outlet reported that some of the examples of the discipline included praying, saying he was sorry, and going over the rule the 3-year-old was supposed to be memorising. Ms Baur also told authorities she wanted Mr Vang to teach Elijah by example how to “be a man”. 

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Mr Vang also told a detective that the toddler was mostly bottle-fed and was not potty-trained. He said Elijah was not allowed to play with the one toy he had while staying at his home from February 12 to February 20 because he was in “time out”. 

According to CNN, the evening before Elijah was last seen, Mr Vang had three 12-ounce beers and a muscle relaxant as a sleep aid. The following morning, Mr Vang took his son to a bus stop and then gave Elijah cereal without milk for breakfast. Mr Vang also said that the toddler did not have his diaper changed that morning and was told to stand and pray at the foot of Mr Vang’s bed. 

On Monday, Ms Baur was formally charged with one felony county of party-to-a-crime of child neglect and two misdemeanour counts of resisting or obstructing an officer. Mr Vang, on the other hand, was formally charged with one felony count of party-to-a-crime child neglect.