You
Our teachers who selflessly stayed back to make sure our kids were okay.
We're currently reunifying them with their loved ones as well.
We do understand that this process of reunification may have taken a while.
Parents really wanted to see their children, give their children a hug.
Certainly I would as a father, but we are fortunate that that process is complete.
As such, I want to thank the Dean Clinic.
This clinic actually shut down their doors today in order to provide a space
so that students who survived this incident could be reunified with their loved ones.
And we thank them for doing this.
At this time we're still working on a motive, trying to determine why this happened.
We know that there is some information that may be circulating about the shooter.
I cannot at this time formally tell you the age or gender or name of the shooter.
We do not want to compromise any part of the investigation.
But it is important to note that later today at 830, I plan to give an additional update.
And I believe at that time, we may be able to give you the answers to some of those questions.
Here's what we know again.
We have three people who have lost their lives.
Two of those people were persons were pronounced dead at the scene and one while on the way to the hospital.
Of the six injured and taken to local hospitals, two students remain in critical condition.
Their injuries are life threatening.
A teacher and three other students were taken to area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.
Two of those victims, two of those survivors, have been released from the hospital.
That is an update.
Officers were dispatched to abundant life Christian school at 1057.
I can confirm that the first officers arrived at 11 a.m.
And immediately went in the building three minutes later.
The Crime Response Unit of Dane County District Attorney's Office,
assisted by the Dane County Emergency Management, and were mobilizing our mass violence critical response team.
Once again, our mass violence critical response team has been notified.
This is a group of people trained in responding to victims of mass violence,
which includes social workers, attorneys, victims, professionals, former law enforcement, and members of our community.
If you need further assistance to want to know how you can help, you can contact the Crime Response Program.
They have a daytime number of 608-284-6908.
They have an after hours number for those who may want to help at 608-376-0164.
Pre-planned or planned shootings, we believe, are preventable.
If you see warning behaviors from someone that is planning an attack, say something, do something.
You can report this at 1-800-My-SU-SO1-1-800-M-Y-SU-SO1.
At this time, joining us is Director of Advancement, Barbara Wiesh.
Thank you.
I understand there's questions regarding the school.
We're happy to answer those to the best of our ability.
We have been incredibly supported by Madison Police, Madison Fire, and the paramedics.
They have been absolutely amazing to us.
It was quite an afternoon for the reunification process.
We had so many people stepping up to help our families.
We're amazing and their patients as we work through this.
We are so grateful from the president, up to the governor, the mayor.
We have had so much support.
This has obviously rocked our school community, but we know it affects not just our school
community, but Madison and the greater area and all schools, and so our hope is that there
will be some good that comes out of this as we can learn and grow and continue to support
other schools.
Okay.
We'll take questions.
Scott, you got the first card out of it.
Chief, can you give us any details about if there are any warning signs that have been
meditated at this, either at the school or with the family or elsewhere, that would
cause any red flags?
Yeah, that's what the officers and detectives are working on now.
Hopefully, this afternoon at our fourth press conference, I'll be able to answer that a
little bit further, but right now, I cannot tell you they're still talking to parents
who are cooperating, and so hopefully we'll be able to give you a more detailed response
as to any warning signs or anything that we may have possibly known prior to this.
All right, Maddie from WISC.
There's one heavy police presence at a home on the north side.
Can you confirm if that's related to this?
I can confirm that it is related to this, and everyone is cooperating.
And so hopefully, later today, if you stick around, we'll be able to give you more information
about that and what we may have learned from that process.
Again, this is a situation where students, teachers, were injured and killed, and everyone
wants to cooperate, everyone wants to give as much information as they can so we can
piece this together for our community.
Thank you.
Okay, Phoebe for almost got some watch.
Yeah, hi, Chief.
So, accounts online are sharing doctored and debunked photos to push a narrative about
the identity of the shooter that goes far beyond what has been released publicly.
Can you respond to that, and can you also say what effect that has on either of the
families or the victims or the public's trust in the law enforcement investigation and
what you say contradicts this media or this narrative that's usually, yeah?
Absolutely.
Social media is something that, quite frankly, I can't control, and neither can anyone in
this room.
There is a trusted and respectful journalist.
And your word means a lot, which is why we're doing, we're doing our third press conference
of the day to get the actual truth out to what has happened.
We have a PIO, three of them working today to make sure we have information.
I will say this.
If you're listening to this or you're at home and you're thinking about reposting or sending
something that did not come from someone in this room, a trusted and respected journalist,
or did not come from us, please don't do that.
Because to answer the second part of your question, what that does is it does help erode the
trust in this process, and that's all we have.
And also, it could further fan the flames, if you will, of misinformation and of fear at
a time where we need to come together and not be divided by anything.
All right, WMTV.
Hello.
Although unfortunate to ask about, are there any lessons learned from back in May from the
Mount Worth shooting that you guys used in action today?
So we were not, that's not my jurisdiction, and so I won't speak to anything that we learned
at Mount Horror, but I will speak to 25 years of law enforcement.
What I've learned is that every opportunity is an opportunity to grow, do better, and train.
This department trains constantly on this thing.
I spoke about it earlier.
We train as far recent as actually today, because our set medics were training at the training
center three miles away, and the training day can turn into an actual response.
So as far as the incident at Mount Horror, it wasn't my jurisdiction.
So the only thing that I can tell you is we try to learn from everything and try to get
better.
Even this one will do an after action debrief once everything is done, and we'll talk about
how we respond it.
Is there anything that we can do better?
Continuous improvement is one of our core values, and we take that very seriously.
All right.
Laura from the Journal, Samuel.
Do you have any idea where the gun came from?
Was it, did it belong to the shooter, did it belong to parents?
I do not know.
That's part of the investigation process.
We're trying to determine that.
We're lucky to have great partners at the ATF.
They obviously have a program that you're all aware of called the TRACE program.
And so we're working with them to try to find the origin of this, and I have no doubt that
we'll be able to do that with their help.
They are amazing partners along with our partners from the FBI.
It was a handgun, right?
I confirmed earlier that it was a handgun.
Thank you.
WKOW Manson.
All right.
Cody?
Yeah.
Can I ask Barbara a question?
Just curious, what kind of safety protocols are in place in the school?
The mental detectors, police on staff, kind of anything like that?
And does this kind of change the way things will be looking for?
I know it's kind of early to ask.
We're a small private Christian school here on the east side of Madison.
We serve 3K to 12.
We have had an amazing partnership with the DOJ and the Office of Schools Safety because
they have done trainings.
They provided school safety grants, and we have participated in both of those school
safety grants to harden our school if you can use that language.
We do not have mental detectors, but we do have a number of security protocols in
place.
We have always been told not to share our security protocols with public liaison,
because then those who might want to do harm will know your security protocols.
But the students are aware that there are cameras in the building, and we do monitor
those regularly in the offices so that we know what is happening in the hallways.
We also have other safety measures throughout the building, but as to a metal
detector, no, we do not have.
We do abide by the policy of visual scans every morning as students come into the
building.
So every student is visually scanned before they go up to their locker spaces or
into their classrooms.
But they are
423K to 12.
Lucas from the state ground?
What part of the school did the school do the school do the shooting happen?
Say again.
What part of the school did the school do the shooting happen?
It happened in near the, so the school is obviously segregated into sections.
I'm told that it happened at a peer time when the transition was complete.
Students were where they were supposed to be near classrooms in the hallways.
I did not again go into the school, so I do not know the exact nomenclature,
the exact nomenclature of where it happened,
but it happened in the learning part of the school.
So once-
To speak to that, the specifics of the layout of the school.
Yeah, because we're still investigating,
we'll just leave it at that.
Thanks.
All right, Sarah from WPR.
You mentioned that the school has a partnership
with the Office of School Safety,
with the Wisconsin Attorney General's Office.
If we need to have access to the school
as a result of that partnership,
then how did that be so before the police response?
Do you want me to turn it on?
I mean, we have that all uploaded.
I don't know whether the police did.
I can't recall that.
Do you want to?
So, okay.
I can speak to the blueprints and the maps.
We do have those uploaded as part of our reporting
to the Department of Justice and the Office of School Safety.
How they were used, I don't know.
I do know that the police were going through
and they were working with staff
to secure the different areas and that they did have maps.
So, whether those are the blueprint maps
or what they were using, that I can't speak to,
but I do know that they did have maps.
You said visual scans, is that sort of like
looking at the student up and down
or is that going through a scan on the right?
It's a visual scan where we look at the student
to see if there's anything unique or unusual or no.
Fred, I can from WKPT.
Sure.
If I could get Barbara back, I'm so sorry.
I don't know if you've had a ton of conversations
with parents or staff members today,
but what is the prevailing thoughts or message
that they wanted to impart to you in the administration?
Sure.
I've had the opportunity to speak to the parents
at the reunification site a couple of different times.
The families that I did speak to mostly were,
as you would expect to have been in life,
they were supportive, they were amazingly patient and kind.
They were offering repeatedly, we're praying for you,
we're praying for our family because at ALCS,
we call ourselves the challenger family.
We see ourselves as a family, not just a community
and whether their child was affected by this or not,
they were affected by it because what affects
one part of the body affects all, as we know the Bible says.
And so we hold that dear.
We also have a very strong faith in our community
that in spite of tragedy, God is working
and we believe that God is good in everything
and that he turns beauty for ashes.
And so I had a number of families who mentioned that to me
that this wasn't a surprise to God
and that he's going to do something mighty with it.
And so we're holding on to those words
and we're continuing to believe and trust in him.
He is our foundation at Abundant Life Christian School.
We exist to bring and to build disciples of Jesus Christ
and so we have complete faith
that he will carry us through this.
All right, do you know, Abundant, give time.
Hi, I have another question for Barbara.
Sorry to bring it back to you.
I'm sorry.
So what details can you share about what students
have come to see right before the shooting started,
the environment, what their morning was like
and see what those details about all?
So some of this is part of the investigation.
So I think there's limited things that I can say
at this time.
Once the investigation is complete, obviously,
there'll be more that will be shared.
We certainly don't want to say anything
that would impede MPD.
That would be critical.
So I will actually step aside and let the Chief Barnes
speak to that because he is the lead for that.
Yeah, I don't have anything to add.
We're certainly working to get as much information
as you can.
We'll do another fourth, I think, press conference today,
later on today, I think at 8.30 and so hopefully
we'll have a little more information for you.
Okay, a DJ with PBS Wisconsin.
Chief Barnes, were there other search warrants
executed today in addition to the house on the north side?
I'm not aware of any.
All right, Carl from NBC26.
Yeah, I have a question for Barbara.
Was this the shooter at school at the beginning of the day
or was there a forceful entry later today?
We believe that the shooter was at school.
We have no information that there was some type of breach
of the school.
Okay, Jenna from WMTV.
Can you say four?
Yeah, sorry.
Okay, that's a big question for you Barbara, as you don't mind.
Can you just talk about Chief earlier
mentioned how teachers and employees and staff
really follow the protocol that you guys have practiced
in place.
I know that this is an emotional event,
obviously for students, but those teachers really take it
to heart when they are sitting there
protecting those little ones at the school.
Can you talk a little bit about what they did right
in this situation?
Obviously this is tragic, but unfortunately
we've seen school students play out that are far worse
than what we saw today.
So it's timely that just prior to the start
of the school year, we had retraining.
We train on this, we do lockdown drills,
we do evacuation drills as part of our standard drill protocols.
Our students are versed in that.
Our faculty are well versed in that.
The training that we did with MPD at the very beginning
of the year prior to the students returning to campus
had some new updates and so we had looked
at some of those things.
So I think everything was very fresh for our faculty.
We follow the protocol of always keeping
our school doors locked and so that is one of the things
that makes it quick and easy to secure a room.
I was actually teaching at the time
so following those protocols is what teacher would do.
We take care of making sure the door is secure,
we shut the door down, we get the students
to a safe part of the room and we prepare.
The students handled themselves magnificently.
I cannot tell you how well our students did in that process.
They were clearly scared when they realized when we practice
we always say this is a drill, it is just a drill.
When they heard lockdown, lockdown and nothing else
they knew it was real but they handled themselves brilliantly
and our faculty kudos to them for following the protocols,
keeping their students safe, doing what we have been trained
to do and so much credit of that goes
to the Department of Justice and the Office
of School Safety, we have been through a number
of trainings by them and we follow their standards
and while we had never hoped to actually employ them today
they helped keep students safe.
We have additional comment, sure.
I'm Trish Kilpin, the Director of the Office
of School Safety at Wisconsin, DOJ and I just would like
to reiterate something Chief Barns had mentioned earlier
and that is that targeted violence is preventable,
that when somebody conducts a school shooting
they don't simply snap, they don't just decide one day
to engage in this egregious behavior.
Instead, they make a decision and start research
and planning towards an act of violence
and when they're on that pathway to violence,
they often demonstrate observable behaviors
that others notice, 82% of the time somebody knows
about a school shooter's plan to attack a school.
So I encourage all in the community, students,
parents alike to report, to speak up, speak out Wisconsin
our 24-7 call center where we do receive concerns
about plan school attacks and deliver them locally
to local law enforcement in schools
to intervene to prevent violence.
Can you say it's all your first and last name,
this question?
Trish Kilpin, T-R-I-S-H, K-I-L, P-I-N,
Director, Wisconsin, DOJ, Office of School Safety.
All right, Charlie from WRT, thank you.
Yeah, this question is part of the Director here.
I know that the school was in the last days
of classes before that your break.
What are your school's plans for the rest of the week
and what kind of community processing
understanding that you might not?
Sure.
Do you have an order?
So at this time, the school is a crime scene
so the students nor staff can be on site.
We want to make sure that we work in tandem
with Madison Police and have them do everything
that they need to do so we will abide by their standards
and when they say we can be back in the building,
we'll return back to the building.
We do have a goal of trying to get our staff together
here early in the week and then try to have
some community opportunities for our students
to reconnect before the holidays.
Whether we will return to classes this week
because this was our last week, we were done on Friday,
is still to be determined.
I do know that there is talk of a public vigil
down at the Capitol.
We are so grateful that we have this amazing support
from the community and so we thank them for that.
Our families will, I would guess, participate in that
and I'm sure that as we move forward,
we will have more plans of what we will do
specifically for them.
Our focus today was the reunification
of getting kids to their families.
All right, we don't have too many more.
Whitney from CNN.
The parents' cooperation, and I know you're
reluctant to talk about one of the disciplines
and so much to know, but have they given you
any indication that they know perhaps they're committed?
They're still in the interview.
So we don't know what they're telling our detectives.
I can only tell you that because they're still
in the interview, because they're still talking,
we are getting cooperation from them.
As to the specifics of what they're saying,
we don't know that.
One of the things that we try to do,
that we've learned during interviews
with people who are cooperative is not to interrupt.
And so I would not want to interrupt the interview
just to give information.
We'll come back a little later.
We can have more information.
We'll do that.
Right, Rob, in box nine.
All right, Adam from CBS Lockheed.
It's kind of Chief Red Frank here.
What can you tell us about whether these victims were
targeted at all, and was there, are there
cameras inside the school?
Yeah, I think whether they were targeted or not,
would speak to motivation.
And we don't know that answer just yet.
But I do believe that the director stated
that there were cameras inside the building public space
cameras.
Dang, from, go ahead.
How many shots roughly were fired, do you know yet?
No, we do not know that.
That will be a part of the forensic investigation,
our crime scene investigators.
We'll be going through that.
And we have also have been offered
help from the FBI if we needed additional help
to actually process the scene as well.
But right now, that's a question that we really cannot answer.
OK, Nick from WISN.
Is anyone in custody?
And is there any reason to think that there
is anybody else involved?
There is not.
No.
Red from Fox six.
Are there any other weapons or in those left behind?
Not that I'm prepared to share now.
Bob from ABC News.
Yeah, we were wondering where the mayor is right now.
And what is more important for her
than attending this press conference?
She was here earlier.
She gave her statements, which I thought
were very appropriate.
We're going to do multiple press conferences.
And so we want the focus to be on information
for the community that's going to come from the police
department.
So that is what I will tell you.
She was here earlier.
And maybe you missed it, but she was here.
I also want to say that we.
Let's get them later from there.
I do not know that.
But I do know she was here when we had our main press
conference.
Additionally, we have been receiving a lot of calls.
I was on the phone with the attorney general,
Mary Garland.
I know we did receive a call from the president and his office
and several others from around the state,
including the governor.
And so we thank them for their interest in that.
OK, Mills from News Nation.
Sir Barbara, do you guys have a school resource officer?
And then also, too, is the school one level, two level?
Would you walk in?
What's that look like?
Sure.
Yeah, yeah.
Two levels, that's right.
So we do not have a school resource officer.
Again, as a small school that is outside of our possibilities
right now, we are a two level school.
So there's two tiers to us.
We are shaped as a giant L. We have a main entrance
through that is secured during the school day.
So anyone coming in after school hour,
when school starts at 805, would need to buzz in and be let in.
Well, let Chief Barnes close us out,
and then we'll be back at 8.30.
So again, I want to thank everyone for being here.
Chief, everyone for all the support.
This has been really a day of collaboration,
a day of preparation, a day in the making
that we hoped would not happen.
Again, as someone who was a former public school teacher,
teaching history for four years in public high school,
as someone who's a father, this is a tough day for me.
It's a tough day for our community.
It's a tough day for everyone.
It's a sad day.
It's a day that will be certainly etched in the collective memories
of everyone in Madison and just another example
of what can happen in our country.
We have to do better.
We have to collaborate with each other.
We have to understand the warning signs.
And we have to use our resources when we see things
that may be going wrong, or someone who may be going off
the beating path.
That's the charge really to our country now.
And we have to do a better job of taking care of each other.
And so all children have been reunified with their parents.
And these children are now the latest group
of survivors of a school shooting,
this time, unfortunately, in Madison, Wisconsin.
We will try to come back around 830
with additional information for our fourth press conference
of the day.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you so much.