The shooter who killed a student and a teacher at a Wisconsin religious school brought two handguns to the school and was in contact with a man in California who authorities say was planning an attack on a government building, according to authorities and court documents made public Wednesday .

Police are still investigating why a 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison opened fire and killed a teacher and a student on Monday, before she shot herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition Wednesday.

“We may never know what she was thinking that day, but we will do our best to try to add or provide as much information as possible to our public,” Barnes said.

Meanwhile, a California judge on Tuesday issued a restraining order under California’s Red Flag Anti-Gun Law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man, effective until Dec. 23. The hearing is scheduled for January 3.

The warrant alleges the man sent messages to Natalie Rupnow, an accused Wisconsin murderer, about an attack on a government building. A California man planned a mass shooting with Rupnow, according to police notes in the restraining order.

He told FBI agents he told Rupnow he planned to arm himself with explosives and target a government building, the notes said. He did not specify which building or when he planned to launch the attack.

The student victim was an avid reader, he loved art

It was not known if the man was in custody Wednesday night.

The slain student was identified in an obituary released Wednesday as Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, of Madison. She was a freshman and “an avid reader, loved art, singing and playing keyboards in the family worship band,” the obituary said.

The name of the murdered teacher has not been released.

Barnes said the medical examiner will release the names of those killed, but state law prohibits the release of the names of those injured.

Police, with the help of the FBI, searched Internet records and other sources and spoke with the gunman’s parents and schoolmates in an attempt to determine a motive, Barnes said.

Police do not know if anyone was targeted or if the attack was planned in advance, he said.

While Rupnow had two guns, Barnes said he did not know how she obtained them and declined to say who bought them, citing the ongoing investigation.

No decisions have been made yet on whether Rupnow’s parents will face charges in connection with the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes said.

Online court records show no criminal charges against her father, Jeffrey Rupnow, or her mother, Mellissa Rupnow. They were divorced and shared custody of their daughter, but she primarily lived with her father, according to court records. Divorce records show Natalie was in therapy in 2022, but don’t say why.

Rare shooters

The shooting was the latest of dozens across the U.S. in recent years, including particularly deadly ones in Newtown, Conn.; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.

But the Madison attack is an exception because only about three percent of all mass murders in the U.S. are committed by women, studies show.

School shootings have become an almost daily occurrence in the United States, with 322 this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. That’s the second-highest total in any year since 1966 — and surpassed only by last year’s 349.

School shootings by teenage girls have been extremely rare in the U.S., with most being carried out by men in their teens and 20s, said David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database.

Emily Salisbury, associate professor of social work at the University of Utah, studies criminology and gender. She said women tend to direct their anger at themselves because American culture has taught them that women don’t hurt people, resulting in eating disorders, self-harm and depression.

It’s hard to speculate without knowing all the facts in Rupnow’s case, Salisbury said, but a girl who resorted to the level of violence she displayed suggests she experienced severe trauma or suffered violence herself.

“There needs to be more provocation, more encouragement for girls and women to become violent,” Salisbury said. “It is very likely that she has experienced some type of violence in her life that can lead to serious mental illness.”

Abundant Life is a non-denominational Christian school – preschool through high school – with approximately 420 students.

Salisbury said the public should not assume the school’s religious teachings mean its students are above bullying and ostracizing each other.

“They’re kids,” Salisbury said. “As much as those (religious) values ​​may be taught or discussed in the classroom about the culture of that school, kids are online all the time. Kids are creating their own culture through social media.”