MADISON — As hundreds of people gathered outside the Wisconsin Capitol Tuesday night to mourn a deadly shooting at Abundant Life Christian School the day before, Charles Moore, executive director of Impact Christian Schools — which oversees religious schools such as Abundant Life – with a Journal Sentinel journalist. about the difficult road ahead.
“It’s hard to understand the shock” of what had happened, Moore said. He said faculty and staff pray and prepare for situations like this, but it was unimaginable to be in the middle of it.
He asked the community not to hesitate in their prayers for those involved.
“There are still some very, very injured children in the hospital,” Moore said. “It doesn’t end on the first day, in the first few minutes. Lives are torn apart.”
Moore said the school would be closed until after the Christmas holidays, and that his organization would better work out how to provide counseling and other necessary mental health resources in the coming days.
Police are still looking for answers about why a 15-year-old student, identified as Natalie Rupnow, opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, killing a student, a teacher and herself and wounding several others. Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon that identifying Rupnow’s motive is the “top priority” and that the motive appears to be “a combination of factors.”
This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The leader of a Christian school in Madison speaks about the Abundant Life shooting
