15-year-old girl kills two in latest US school shooting

15-year-old girl kills two in latest US school shooting

MADISON, Wisconsin

Students are escorted from a church next to the Abundant Life Christian School and loaded on busses to be taken to a reunification center on Dec. 16, 2024 in Madison, Wisconsin.

A 15-year-old female student was identified by police as the assailant who opened fire on Dec. 16 at a school in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, where a fellow student and teacher were killed and the suspected shooter was found dead.

Shon Barnes, police chief in the state capital Madison, told a press briefing that three people had died and seven others were wounded at the Abundant Life Christian School, a private Christian school with about 400 students.

"The shooter has now been identified as [a] 15-year-old," Barnes told reporters, identifying the minor by name.

"She was a student at the school, and evidence suggests she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound," he added.

Barnes said a second-grade student called emergency services to report the shooting shortly before 11 a.m. local time.

Of the six wounded victims who were hospitalized, two students remain in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, two people are in stable condition, and two have been discharged from hospital, the police chief said.

A handgun was recovered at the scene, Barnes said, adding that the suspect's family was cooperating with the police investigation.

"We are still working to determine a motive," he said.

Dec. 16's violence is the latest in a long line of school shootings in the United States, where guns outnumber people and attempts to restrict access to firearms face perennial political deadlock.