According to court documents, a California man who was planning his own attack communicated with the Wisconsin school shooter.
According to authorities and court documents made public Wednesday, the gunman who killed a teacher and a student at a Wisconsin religious school had two firearms with him and had communicated with a man in California who was preparing an attack on a government building.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told The Associated Press on Wednesday that investigators were still looking into why the 15-year-old student at Madison’s Abundant Life Christian School shot and killed a classmate and a teacher on Monday before shooting herself. On Wednesday, two additional students who had been shot were still in critical condition.
Under California’s gun red flag law, a judge in Southern California issued a restraining order against a Carlsbad man, 20, on Tuesday. Because he is an immediate danger to himself and others, the man must turn in his firearms and ammunition to the police within 48 hours, unless an officer requests them earlier.
Just north of San Diego is Carlsbad.
The order claims that the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging the Wisconsin shooter, Natalie Rupnow, about using a gun and explosives to attack a government building. What building he had targeted and when he intended to attack are not specified in the order. Additionally, it only mentions that the man was planning a mass murder without going into detail about his interactions with Rupnow.
CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.
Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”