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The daddy of a Wisconsin teenage woman who killed a instructor and fellow pupil in a faculty capturing was charged with felonies Thursday in reference to the case, police mentioned.
The capturing occurred at Ample Life Christian College in Madison final December.
Jeffrey Rupnow, 42, of Madison, was taken into custody round 3:45 a.m. Thursday, police mentioned.
Rupnow was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a kid and two counts of offering a harmful weapon to an individual underneath 18 leading to loss of life. All three expenses are felonies, punishable by as much as six years in jail every. He was scheduled to make an preliminary look in court docket on Friday.
Rupnow’s daughter, 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, opened hearth on Dec. 16, 2024, at Ample Life Christian College, killing a instructor and a 14-year-old pupil earlier than killing herself. Two different college students had been critically injured.
Jeffrey Rupnow didn’t instantly reply to a message The Related Press left on his Fb web page. Nobody instantly returned voicemails left at potential phone listings for him and his ex-wife, Melissa Rupnow. On-line court docket information point out he represented himself within the couple’s 2022 divorce and don’t listing an lawyer for him in that case.
In keeping with a prison criticism, Rupnow informed investigators that his daughter was traumatized by her mother and father’ divorce and acquired into capturing weapons after he took her capturing on a good friend’s land. He mentioned he purchased her two handguns and informed her the entry code to his gun secure was his Social Safety quantity entered backward.
Investigators found writings in her room through which she describes humanity as “filth,” hated individuals, acquired her weapons by means of her father’s “stupidity” and wished to kill herself in entrance of everybody. She constructed a cardboard mannequin of the varsity and developed a schedule for her assault that ended simply after midday with the notation: “prepared 4 loss of life.”
Police recovered a 9 mm Glock handgun that her father had purchased her from a research corridor the place she opened hearth and one other .22-caliber pistol that her father had given to her as a Christmas current in a bag she had been carrying by means of the varsity.
Twelve days after the capturing, a Madison police detective obtained a message from Jeffrey Rupnow saying his greatest mistake was instructing his child secure gun dealing with and urging police to warn individuals to alter the codes on their gun safes each two to 3 months.
“Children are sensible and they’ll determine it out. Similar to somebody making an attempt to hack your checking account.’ I simply wish to shield different households from going by means of what I’m going by means of,” he mentioned.
Jeffrey Rupnow is the newest mum or dad of a college shooter to face expenses related to an assault.
Final yr, the mom and father of a college shooter in Michigan who killed 4 college students in 2021 had been every convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The mom was the primary mum or dad within the U.S. to be held accountable for a kid finishing up a mass faculty assault.
The daddy of a 14-year-old boy accused of fatally capturing 4 individuals at a Georgia highschool was arrested in September and faces expenses together with second-degree homicide and involuntary manslaughter for letting his son possess a weapon.
In 2023, the daddy of a person charged in a lethal Fourth of July parade capturing in suburban Chicago pleaded responsible to seven misdemeanors associated to how his son obtained a gun license.
Killed within the capturing had been Ample Life instructor Erin Michelle West, 42, and pupil Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14.
Ample Life is a nondenominational Christian faculty that gives prekindergarten lessons by means of highschool. About 420 college students attend the establishment.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative tales and Friday information roundup. This story is revealed in partnership with The Related Press.
