A teacher and teenage student were killed and six students were injured in a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday, law enforcement officials said.
The suspect, a teenage student at the school, is also dead, police said.
Officers responded to the scene around 10:57 a.m. following an active shooter report. Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes confirmed that two students are facing life threatening injuries.
Two of the six injured are in critical condition with life-threatening injuries and the four other students suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
“We owe it to our community to do everything possible to ensure [schools are] not only a special place, but a safe place,” Barnes said.
“I hoped that this day would never come in Madison,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said.
President Joe Biden released a statement, offering his prayers to the victims while calling on Congress to pass gun reform legislation.
“Jill and I are praying for all the victims today, including the teacher and teenage student who were killed and those who sustained injuries,” Biden said. “We can never accept senseless violence that traumatizes children, their families, and tears entire communities apart.”
“We need Congress to act. Now,” he added.
Jill Underly, Wisconsin’s superintendent of public instruction, also called on changes to be made.
“This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to protect our children and our educators to ensure that such horrors never happen again. We will not rest until we find solutions that make our schools safe,” she said in a statement.
Authorities have not identified the suspected shooter or provided any details about a possible motive.
“As difficult as today is, that’s still someone’s child that’s gone, that’s still someone that has to deal with what happened today,” Barnes said. “And so we want to make sure that we can ensure as much cooperation as we can.”
