The teenage girl who killed a teacher and fellow student at her Wisconsin school this week was in contact with a California man who was planning his own mass shooting, according to California court records.
News of the connection between 15-year-old Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow and the Carlsbad, California, man surfaced while authorities worked to determine exactly what motivated her to stage Monday’s attack at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison. In addition to the two fatalities, the suspect wounded six other people before turning the gun on herself.
In Wisconsin, the Dane County Medical office identified the two people killed at the school as ninth-grade student Rubi Vergara, 14, and Erin West, a 42-year-old faculty member. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
It remained unclear how the California man and Rupnow became connected. Police have been scouring her online activity, checking her cellphone records and interviewing friends and family to understand her motivations and relationships with others, a police statement said.
“Defining the motive remains a top priority,” police said in the statement. “There appears to be a combination of many factors right now.”
The shooting was a rare example of a mass killing carried out by a female. Male perpetrators have been responsible for an overwhelming majority of such crimes, which have become almost commonplace in the United States.
The California “gun violence emergency protective order” was issued on Wednesday under the state’s red flag law in Superior Court of California County of San Diego against Alexander Charles Paffendorf, 20, of Carlsbad, who was allegedly in contact with Rupnow.
The order states that Paffendorf was confronted by FBI agents “after he was discovered plotting a mass shooting” with Rupnow.
The order added that Paffendorf “admitted to the FBI agents that he told Rupnow that he would arm himself with explosives and a gun and that he would target a government building.”
The order said FBI agents “saw the messages from Paffendorf to Rupnow.” It does not say what building Paffendorf had allegedly targeted or when the alleged attack would happen. It also offered no details about his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.
Reuters was unable to contact Paffendorf. It was unclear whether he had retained an attorney.