Have authorities released the gender identity of the suspected shooter at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, as of December 17, 2024? No, that's not true: Police have used the pronouns "she" and "her" multiple times when referring to the suspect but have stated publicly that they do not know whether she was trans, as some posts on social media claim. Authorities have not released any information about the alleged shooter's gender identity as of this writing.
A version of the claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on December 16, 2024, that showed a video of Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes describing the shooting. A caption with the video read:
Another mentally unstable psychopath who was prescribed puberty blocker, & hormones just executed 5 children at a Christian school in Madison Wisconsin.
This is how the post appeared on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken Mon Dec 16 15:17:00 2024 UTC)
The post refers to a school shooting that occurred at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison on December 16, 2024. The Madison Police Department identified (archived here) the alleged shooter as Natalie Rupnow, who went by Samantha, a 15-year-old student at the school.
Video shared in the post on X was taken from Fox News coverage (archived here) streamed live on December 16, 2024. Barnes did not refer to the suspect's gender identity at any point during this initial press briefing.
Authorities addressed the question of Rupnow's gender identity during a later December 16, 2024, press briefing. At roughly the 18:48 mark of this video, Barnes said he did not "know whether Natalie was transgender or not." There is no evidence to suggest that she was.
Madison Police held another press briefing on December 17, 2024 (archived here). Authorities did not address whether the alleged shooter was transgender but again referred to Rupnow using "she" and "her" pronouns.
The police incident report (archived here) uses "she" or "her" pronouns for Rupnow. Similarly, statements issued by the City of Madison (archived here) on December 16, 2024 (archived here) and December 17, 2024 (archived here) did not include Rupnow's gender identity but used "she" and "her" pronouns.
As of this writing, three people died from the shooting, including the suspect, and at least six others were injured.
Unverified claims that a suspected mass shooter is transgender is a common reaction in the aftermath of mass shootings to suggest that trans people are dangerous. Hours following the Abundant Life Christian School shooting, numerous (archived here) social media users claimed that Rupnow was trans (archived here), sometimes sharing purported images of the suspect.
Lead Stories contacted the Madison Police Department, the City of Madison, Abundant Life School and the Association of Christian Schools for further information regarding the suspected shooter's gender identity. We will update this article if any additional information is received.
Lead Stories has debunked other claims suggesting that a shooting suspect was trans, including ones involving the attempted assassin of Donald Trump in 2024 and the 2023 mass shooting at The Covenant School in Tennessee.
