The killer in Monday’s school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin, has been identified as a 15-year-old girl who attended the Christian institution but left behind a purported “manifesto” packed with un-Christian beliefs.
According to ABC News, the girl was named Natalie Rupnow, who also went by the name Samantha.
No motive has been established for the Abundant Life Christian School shooting that left a teacher, student, and the killer dead. But if the manifesto is authentic, the shooter dripped with hatred for humanity.
Tragic Shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison: A 15-year-old student, #NatalieRupnow #SamanthaRupnow , opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, resulting in the deaths of a teacher and a fellow student, and injuring six others.
The… pic.twitter.com/LKFqVkYJMW— Platinum_Capital (@rpdnetwork) December 17, 2024
As Newsweek reported, authorities have yet to verify the manifesto’s origin, but the social media account that posted it claimed it had come from Rupnow’s boyfriend.
Besides numerous criticisms of “my father” and “my mother,” the deeply disturbed document — titled “War Against Humanity” — contains paeans to international killers, frankly racist language, and a loathing for human beings.
“Humanity is filth and I don’t like filth nor want to live in it nor should anyone else and I know it follows me and how it has followed me and will follow everyone else because of how the world is runned,” it stated on its first page.
“I am part of the real thought and the real revolution,” it stated on the second page.
Another page extolled the actions of three attackers — one in Finland, who killed eight in a 2007 school shooting, one who killed 19 at a vocational college in Russian-occupied Crimea in 2018, and a Turkish neo-Nazi who wounded seven in a knife attack at a tea house in August.
The manifesto praised all three, calling the Turk an “Ultimate saint.”
On the fourth page, the manifesto’s author wrote, “I got the weapons by lies, and manipulation and my fathers stupidity.”
“I planned on shooting myself a while ago but thought maybe its better for evolution rather than just one stupid boring suicide which hopefully ill reach that point.”
As if to drive home the point of despising humans, the manifesto ended with a quote from Theodore Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber who waged a 17-year campaign of terror against innocent victims that included extorting major news organizations into publishing his own densely written manifesto of madness.
“Finally, one learns that boredom is a disease of civilization,” the manifesto stated, with the text in bold.
The quote is from a 1999 interview Kaczynski gave to the Blackfoot Valley (Montana) Dispatch.
Kaczynski, who was also admired by Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the Dec. 4 assassination of a health insurance executive in New York City, died by suicide in a federal prison cell in June 2023, according to the Associated Press.
It was unclear how long Rupnow had attended Abundant Life, but she was not happy there. A line on the final page of the manifesto indicated that she had “moved schools,” but “what’s already happening? Picked on again, just not any worse.”
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told reporters the girl’s parents are cooperating with investigators and, at this stage, were not expected to be charged.
“The parents are fully cooperating. We have no reason to believe that they have committed a crime at this time,” Barnes said, according to ABC.
Apparently she was unaware that bullied kids are bullied because they “broadcast signals” of low self-worth and, often are smaller or otherwise more vulnerable than the bullies. Her despite of others arose out of her own self-loathing, also “broadcasting” in her words, actions, and bearing, and sure to draw resistance in the form of bullying. Not knowing her whole history, I can’t rightly guess the root cause of her feelings, but frequent references, mentioned in this article, to her parents suggests strongly a dysfunctional, probably abusive home environment and some serious mental health issues, as does suicidal ideation. This kid was, apparently failed from the start, and NO ONE even recognized the depth of trouble she was in.