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MADISON, Wis. — The shooter at a religious school in Wisconsin had two handguns with her but used only one in the attack that killed a teacher and a student and wounded six others, the city's police chief said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday, before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
"We may never know what she was thinking that day, but we'll do our best to try to add or give as much information to our public as possible," Barnes said, adding to what he said Tuesday about the shooting being "a combination of factors."
The student who was killed was identified in an obituary released Wednesday as Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, of Madison. She was a freshman at the school and "an avid reader, loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band," according to the obituary. The Associated Press' attempts to reach the girl's family by phone and email on Wednesday evening were unsuccessful.
The Dane County medical examiner Wednesday evening identified the teacher who was killed as 42-year-old Erin Michelle West, after initially identifying her as Michelle E. West. A man who answered the phone at a number listed for West in public records hung up when reached by a reporter Wednesday evening.
Barnes released the name of the shooter, Natalie "Samantha" Rupnow, hours after the shooting on Monday. Barnes said the medical examiner would release the names of those killed, but the state's crime victims privacy law would bar releasing the names of those wounded.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with her parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes said.
They don't know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, and Barnes added he does not know how Rupnow obtained her two handguns and declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
Why not release more information?
Meanwhile, tension over police not releasing information had spilled over into a news conference on Tuesday, where Barnes left without taking questions. Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway grew increasingly terse in her responses as reporters asked questions she could not answer.
Barnes on Wednesday defended the police department's handling of information about the shooting because it has moved from a crisis response to the investigation phase.
Tamrin Olden, a former police department spokesperson in California whose company provides communications training for law enforcement, said she advises departments to give routine updates with factual information after critical incidents and avoid unnecessarily delaying the release of information.
She said that communications errors can cause frustration in the community, undermine the public's trust and compound the underlying tragedy.
For example: The police department has had to correct some key misstatements since Monday, including that three and not five people had died and that a second-grade teacher, not a second-grade student, called 911.
Paul Bucher, the former Waukesha County district attorney who was involved in a number of high-profile cases, said the media has unrealistic expectations about how quickly officials should release information in high-profile incidents. His cases have included prosecuting former Green Bay Packers star tight end Mark Chmura for sexual assault in 2000 and being part of the team that dealt with the aftermath of a mass shooting at a church gathering in Brookfield in 2005 that left seven people dead.
But Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council President Bill Lueders, a longtime Madison journalist, said Wednesday that authorities should be more transparent with the facts.
The school shooting was the latest among dozens across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
But it stands out because school shootings by teenage females have been extremely rare in the U.S., with males in their teens and 20s carrying out the majority of them, said David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database.
Emily Salisbury, an associate professor of social work at the University of Utah, studies criminology and gender. She said that females typically turn their anger on themselves because American culture has taught them that women don't hurt people, resulting in eating disorders, self-harm and depression.
It's difficult to speculate without knowing all the facts in Rupnow's case, Salisbury said, but a girl resorting to the level of violence she displayed suggests she experienced severe trauma or suffered violence herself.
