A teenager opened fire Monday in his school in Madison, in the north of the United States, killing two people and injuring six others before being found dead, according to the authorities, yet another tragedy in this country regularly bereaved by school killings.
“Three people are dead, including the suspected shooter,” said Shon Barnes, the police chief of this Midwestern American city. The suspect, whose age or gender he does not reveal, is a “teenage student” attending the private Christian school Abundant Life Christian School.
The two deceased victims are a teacher and a student, Mr. Barnes said during a press conference, adding that two of the six injured students were between life and death.
In a statement, outgoing President Joe Biden called the shooting “shocking” and “senseless.” He urged Congress to “act” to pass more restrictive laws in a country with more individual firearms than people.
“There are no words to describe the desolation and pain we feel today,” Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said in a statement published on X.
“Sad day”
At 10:57 a.m. local time Monday, Madison police were notified of a shooting in progress at the private Christian school Abundant Life, which serves nearly 400 students, ranging from kindergarten through high school.
“The shooter was dead when we arrived,” said Shon Barnes, adding that a “handgun” had been found and that the police had not opened fire. The killing occurred in a single area of the establishment: “I don’t know if it was in a classroom or in a corridor,” explained the police chief.
“We have secured the school, there are no other threats or danger to the community,” he assured, affirming that he did not know, at this time, the motivations of the suspect.
“This is truly a sad day for Madison and for our country,” Shon Barnes said.
“I think we could all agree that enough is enough,” said the man who began his career as a teacher before becoming a police officer.
“I think we need to do better in our country and our community to prevent gun violence,” said Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.
“I hoped this day would never come to Madison,” lamented the Democratic city councilor.
“Scourge”
Repeated killings in schools provoke strong emotion in public opinion in the United States, a country which pays a very heavy price for the dissemination of firearms and the ease with which the population has access to them.
“From Newton to Uvalde, from Parkland to Madison, to many other shootings that fail to attract attention — it is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence,” he said. criticized President Joe Biden.
In September, a 14-year-old teenager killed four people, two students of his age and two teachers, by opening fire in his high school in Georgia.
In 2012, a madman shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children aged six and seven, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut.
Such a traumatic event was repeated in May 2022 when an 18-year-old man shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Between these two tragedies, a massacre committed in a high school in Florida, on February 14, 2018 in Parkland, triggered a vast national movement, with youth at the forefront, to demand stricter regulation of individual weapons in the United States. Without really moving the lines.
