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No evidence Abundant Life Christian School shooter was transgender | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall   Paste BN
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The claim: Wisconsin school shooter was transgender

A Dec. 16 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) claims a December 2024 school shooting in Wisconsin was perpetrated by a transgender person.

"The school shooter in Madison Wisconsin Christian School shooting has been identified as a female identifying as a male," reads text within the post, which was originally shared on Facebook. "Another trans person shooting a school, how many is it now?"

The Instagram video shows several videos and images, including screenshots of a headline bearing the same claim and of an X account the post claims belonged to the shooter.

The Instagram post garnered more than 500 likes in two days.

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Our rating: False

There's no evidence the shooter was transgender. No official sources or credible media outlets have reported this, and none of the images or videos included in the post prove the shooter identified as male.

Claim about transgender shooter is baseless

Police reported a 15-year-old-girl shot and killed two people and injured several others before taking her own life at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, on Dec. 16. Police later identified the shooter as 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha.

Like many past shootings, the incident has become the target of online speculation regarding the shooter's gender identity. But there's no evidence Rupnow was transgender.

When asked about whether the suspected shooter was transgender at a Dec. 16 press briefing, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said, "I don't know whether Natalie was transgender or not. Quite frankly, I don't think that's even important. ... I don't think that whatever happened today has anything to do with how she or he or they may have wanted to identify."

A "Facts and Questions" page about the shooting on the Madison city website states, "At this time, there is nothing to suggest (the shooter's gender identity) played a role in motive."

There are no credible news reports about the suspected shooter being transgender. The article pictured in the video doesn't provide any credible evidence to back up its claim. Instead, it links to a variety of unrelated and, as the outlet itself says, "unconfirmed" social media posts supposedly from or about the shooter.

Fact check: No evidence X account belonged to Georgia shooting suspect Colt Gray

Likewise, there's no evidence the X account shown in the Instagram video belonged to Rupnow. The account, which was created this month, doesn't include any indications that Rupnow created it or that its owner is transgender.

The shooter's Tumblr and X accounts both reportedly contained references to guns, shootings and other violent attacks, according to ABC News. This imagery included a video from the 2015 school stabbing in Trollhattan, Sweden, and another clip of a person taking their life at a shooting range. It's unknown whether the clips included in the Instagram video were shared on Rupnow's accounts.

The Madison Police Department said it's unable to comment on the claims in the post because the investigation is ongoing.

Paste BN previously debunked similarly false claims that the Lakewood Church shooter and the Uvalde, Texas, shooter were transgender.

Paste BN reached out to the users who shared the posts for comment but did not immediately receive responses.

PolitiFact also debunked the claim.

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