The father of a 15-year-old school shooter was arrested and charged last week after allowing his daughter access to semiautomatic pistols, which were used in a fatal school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, last December.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by The Associated Press, 42-year-old Jeffrey Rupnow has been charged with two felony counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a person under 18 that caused death and contributed to the delinquency of a child. The charges come after Rupnow’s 15-year-old daughter, Natalie Rupnow, committed a mass shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in December.
According to The Associated Press, Rubi Bergara, a 14-year-old student, and Erin Michelle West, a teacher at Abundant Life Christian School, were killed in December’s mass shooting, while six others were injured prior to Natalie Rupnow ending her own life.
The Associated Press reported that Jeffrey Rupnow was arrested on Thursday and booked at the Dane County Jail.
In the criminal complaint obtained by The Associated Press, the 42-year-old father explained how his daughter struggled with her parents’ divorce and expressed her anger in a manifesto titled “War Against Humanity.” The criminal complaint noted that Jeffrey Rupnow attempted to bond with Natalie Rupnow through guns.
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According to The Associated Press, investigators discovered a 9 mm Glock handgun that Jeffrey Rupnow had purchased for the 15-year-old, as well as a .22-caliber Sig Sauer pistol, at the scene of the shooting. The complaint indicated that Jeffrey Rupnow had given the Sig Sauer pistol to his daughter as a Christmas gift in 2023.
Jeffrey Rupnow told investigators that he took his daughter shooting roughly two years prior to the school shooting. After discovering that his daughter enjoyed shooting, he attempted to use guns to connect with her; however, he told investigators that he was surprised how her interest in guns “snow balled.”
According to the criminal complaint, Jeffrey Rupnow kept his daughter’s pistols in a gun safe and gave his daughter the access code. The 42-year-old reportedly texted a friend prior to the school shooting that his daughter would shoot him if he left “the fun safe open right now.”
The Associated Press reported that the criminal complaint showed Rupnow had removed the Sig Sauer pistol from the gun safe to clean it just one day before the school shooting and that he became distracted and was not sure if he put the gun back in the safe or if he locked the safe.
According to The Associated Press, in Natalie Rupnow’s “War Against Humanity” manifesto, the 15-year-old described humans as “filth,” expressed her admiration for school shooters, and revealed that her firearms had been obtained “by lies and manipulation, and my fathers stupidity.”
