Teacher killed by Wisconsin school shooter Natalie Rupnow was subbing for regular teacher away on vacation

The 15-year-old who shot up a Wisconsin Christian school killed a substitute teacher who was covering for another educator who had gone on vacation this week, according to a parent.

Natalie Rupnow gunned down the substitute, another teenager and wounded five others before taking her own life in a mass shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison on Tuesday.

The substitute teacher was running a study hall for students when Rupnow started pulling the trigger, Lyndsay O’Connor, whose daughter and son attend the school, told Wisconsin Right Now.

Natalie Rupnow, 15, killed a substitute teacher and a teenager before taking her own life. Facebook/Jeff Rupnow

“The teacher died protecting her class. Many more lives could have been taken. She (Rupnow) sent off multiple rounds,” she said.

The teen shooter “was very much to herself” and was known for wearing “a collared shirt with a tie, jeans, and combat boots” to school, the mom said.

Rupnow “weirded out” her daughter, Mackynzie, who had a messy locker next to Rupnow’s, “but she decided to be nice to her a month into school and to [begin] talking to her,” O’Connor said.

Rupnow was known to her classmates as Samantha or Sam and regularly “pounded energy drinks.”

The substitute teacher was running a study hall when Rupnow barged in and started shooting, one mother told Wisconsin Right Now. JEFFERY PHELPS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“The teacher died protecting her class. Many more lives could have been taken. She (Rupnow) sent off multiple rounds,” the mother continued. Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

She was described by O’Connor as an “odd version of preppie in a way” who would dress up in shirts and ties.

The parent added that Rupnow did not have many friends and was “very isolated.”

The killer had also appeared to have a troubled home life, and was constantly texting with her boyfriend, whom she said she had met over the internet and was from Germany, the mother said.

Rupnow was known to her classmates as Samantha or Sam and regularly “pounded energy drinks,” according to reports. Facebook/Jeff Rupnow
Students board a bus as they leave a shelter following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School. AP

“She died a broken girl. She died unheard, and she found solace in a bunch of people who didn’t promote goodness,” O’Connor said.

She told people she had to go to the nurse before the shooting — but it’s not clear if she ever did, O’Connor added.

Rupnow opened fire with a handgun inside the K-12 school around 11 a.m., killing the substitute teacher and another teenager. 

Several hundred people attend a vigil for school shooting victims Tuesday, December 17, 2024, on Capitol Square in Madison, Wisconsin. Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Six others — five students and another teacher — were also wounded.

Two of those students are clinging to life in the hospital, officials said. 

Authorities have not yet identified the victims.