Will Natalie Rupnow’s father, Jeff Rupnow face charges? How much did the Madison, Wisconsin dad know about his daughter’s ‘planned’ mass shooting which led to three dead, including the teen shooter? Dad posted image of Samantha Rupnow practising at gun range wearing ‘notorious’ KMFDM shirt, worn by other mass shooters.
Raising questions about a Madison, Wisconsin father’s potential complicity in Monday’s tragic school shooting that led to three dead (including the teen gunman) is an image that appeared on the alleged teen parent’s Facebook page, showing his daughter, Natalie ’Samantha’ Rupnow practising shooting at a gun range in August.
The image which appears on the Facebook wall of Jeff Rupnow, taken at the North Bristol Sportsman’s Club (NBSC) gun range, shows Samantha Rupnow, 15, pointing a shotgun at a clay pigeon while wearing a black top emblazoned with the name of the band KMFDM.
Wisconsin shooter teen had turbulent life at home, was in therapy
What motivated Natalie ‘Samantha’ Rupnow? Victim of bullying?
KMFDM copy cat school mass shooter?
Columbine killer Eric Harris was infamously seen wearing a KMFDM T-shirt ahead of the 1999 Colorado high school massacre where 13 were murdered. The massacre is often seen as a watershed moment in the age of American mass school shootings.
In the post, the father ‘affectionately’ describes his daughter as ‘kiddo’, with the dad seemingly speaking with pride as to his teen daughter’s prowess with the weapon.
Asks a commentator, Paul Camponeschi underneath the post, ‘Is that Kiddo?’
Responds Jeff Rupnow: ‘Paul Camponeschi, sure is!!!! We joined NBSC this spring and we have been loving all every second of it!’
Natalie Rupnow, 15, in Monday’s shooting killed a substitute teacher and a teenage student and wounded six others with a 9mm pistol at Abundant Life Christian School, before turning the gun on herself. She died while being transported to hospital.
KMFDM just a passing fad or an insider’s allegiance to nihilism?
The North Bristol Sportsman’s Club – is a gun club in Sun Prairie, a suburb of Madison, offering annual family memberships for just $90, according to its website. The club was founded in 1970 and has more than 600 members. The Rupnows’ alleged membership has not yet been confirmed by the club.
Also not immediately clear was whether Rupnow’s parents were gun owners.
As scrutiny fell on Jeff Rupnow’s image of the gun range, observers noticed the girl wearing a t-shirt of the German industrial rock band KMFDM, who were notably idolized by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre.
The pair shot and killed 12 students and one teacher in the attack. Captured CCTV footage showed the heavily armed killers walking around the school’s cafeteria during the mass killing.
They injured 21 others while three more were hurt while attempting to escape the school. The pair subsequently killed themselves before they could be caught.
A website belonging to Harris featured lyrics from KMFDM songs and speeches by Adolf Hitler. They were also photographed wearing the band’s shirts. At the time of the shooting, the group released a statement denouncing the shooting and Nazism.
Police, who identified Rupnow as the shooter on Monday are still investing the motive behind her rampage. Officers raided the family’s home and are sifting through a manifesto that she may have left behind.
The details come amid online speculation over Rupnow’s gender identity after Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes sparked controversy by claiming that whether or not she is transgender is ‘not important at all’ to the investigation into the shooting.
Parents of school mass shootings being held accountable for their children’s ‘deadly’ actions
Others, including this author, wondered whether a perceived animosity towards males (as alleged in a recovered manifesto) and an inherent conflict towards gender identity may have indeed been the catalyst that sparked Mondays’s school shooting.
Conflict that Rupnow’s parents ought to have been aware of and safeguarding against. Reflected one commentator on social media:
‘If she was having problems why did her parents make access to a gun very easy? If you own a firearm you always need to secure it. That’s basic knowledge.’
Police Chief Barnes also raised the possibility of Rupnow’s parents facing charges, following the 10 year sentencing of James and Jennifer Crumbley for abetting their teen son’s shooting and opening the door to prosecutions of school shooter parents.
Arrested and charged in the latest episode of parents of school shooters being held accountable for their children’s actions, is the father of Colt Gray, Colin Gray, who Georgia prosecutors allege was ‘specifically’ warned by the FBI against supplying his teen son with an AR-15 rifle which was subsequently used in a mass shooting at an Apalachee high school that led to the shooting deaths of four.
Barnes said at Monday’s press conference: ‘We also want to look at if the parents may have been negligent. And that’s a question that we’ll have to answer with our district attorney’s office.’
The shooter’s parents, who are divorced, jointly shared custody of their child, but the shooter primarily lived with her 42-year-old father, according to court documents.
Barnes said police are speaking with Rupnow’s father to determine how much the parent may have known leading up to Monday’s school shooting.
‘He lost someone, as well. And so we’re not going to rush the information, we’ll take our time and certainly do our due diligence,’ Barnes told reporters, Monday night.
Barnes said police currently have ‘no reason to believe’ that Rupnow’s parents have committed a crime. That too might all change as the investigation into the Madison, Wisconsin school shooting progresses.
