The father of a teenage girl who fatally shot a teacher and a fellow student at a Christian school in Madison, Wis., in December was arrested on Thursday and charged with felonies in connection with the case, the authorities said.
Jeffrey Rupnow, 42, of Madison was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a child and two counts of providing a dangerous weapon to a person under 18 resulting in death, police records showed.
John Patterson, the acting police chief in Madison, Wis., said at a news conference on Thursday that both of the guns the girl, Natalie Rupnow, 15, had at the time of the attack had been bought legally in Dane County by Mr. Rupnow.
Mr. Rupnow, who would face up to 18 years in prison if he is found guilty on all counts, had a gun safe in the home, Chief Patterson said. “Her father knew that she had them, or at least had access to them,” the chief said. He said that it was unclear whether she had taken the guns from the safe or from outside the safe.
It was not immediately clear on Thursday whether Mr. Rupnow had a lawyer. He is expected to make an initial court appearance on Friday.
Natalie Rupnow was a student at Abundant Life Christian School who was known as Samantha. She died after the attack from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the police said. The authorities have not stated a motive for the shooting.
The shooter opened fire in a study hall for students from several grades at the school on Dec. 16.
She had been communicating online with people around the world about her fascination with violence and school shootings, Chief Patterson said. He said that the authorities had found a “manifesto” entitled “War Against Humanity.”
The two people who were killed were identified as Rubi P. Vergara, 14, a student, and Erin M. West, 42, who was listed in a staff directory as the substitute coordinator at Abundant Life, which offers prekindergarten through high school classes for about 400 students.
Two other students were critically injured in the attack and have since recovered, officials said. Four others — three students and a teacher — were hospitalized with less serious injuries.
The shooter had two handguns with her, the authorities said in December, though the police said that they believed she had used only one of them in the attack.
He is the latest parent to face charges associated with a school shooting. James and Jennifer Crumbley were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison in April 2024. They had been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for failing to prevent their teenage son from killing four fellow students at a Michigan high school in November 2021.
The Crumbleys were the first parents to be directly charged for the deaths caused by a child in a mass shooting at a school. Their son Ethan, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including first-degree murder, and was sentenced in 2023 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
