A 15-year-old student opened fire Dec. 16 at Abundant Life Christian School, a private K-12 school in Madison, Wisconsin, killing two people and injuring six others. Soon after, social media users started circulating claims about the shooter’s identity.
A Dec. 16 Instagram video with a “sensitive content” warning opened with a screenshot of a Facebook post that read, “The school shooter in Madison Wisconsin Christian School shooting has been identified as a female identifying as a male.”
The Instagram post’s caption read, “Another Transgender School Shooter Targets A Christian School.”
(Screenshot from Instagram)
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes identified the school shooter as Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha. Rupnow also died in the shooting, likely by suicide, Barnes said at a Dec. 16 press conference.
As the police investigation continued, little else was known about the shooter’s motive, identity or background. But that hasn’t stopped social media users from making baseless claims, including that Rupnow was transgender.
When asked about this at the press conference, Barnes said, “I don’t know whether Natalie was transgender or not. And quite frankly, I don’t think that’s important at all. I don’t think whatever happened today has anything to do with how she or he or they may want to identify.”
Officials did not comment on the suspect’s gender identity during a Dec. 17 press conference.
In other recent school shootings, including at Apalachee High School in Georgia and Robb Elementary School in Texas, viral social media posts falsely claimed the suspects were transgender. Similar claims were made about the shooter in the July assassination attempt against President-elect Donald Trump.
Experts in extremism, domestic terrorism, and mass shootings told PolitiFact in February that data does not support the assertion that “trans terrorism” or LGBTQ+ extremist violence is increasing.
We rate the claim that “the school shooter in Madison Wisconsin Christian School shooting has been identified as a female identifying as a male” False.
Truth-o-meter Ruling
IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT
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Officials in Madison, Wisconsin, have not said the Abundant Life Christian School shooting suspect was transgender.
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Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes identified the shooter as Natalie Rupnow, a 15-year-old student who went by the name Samantha.
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PolitiFact has fact-checked other false claims that shooting suspects identified as transgender. Experts said data does not support the assertion that "trans terrorism" or LGBTQ+ extremist violence is increasing.
Statement
Context
a postSpeaker/Target
Statement Date
Our Sources
Instagram post, Dec. 16, 2024
Facebook post, Dec. 16, 2024
YouTube, "The Associated Press - LIVE: Press conference after school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin," Dec. 16, 2024
YouTube, "The Associated Press - LIVE: Press conference on the school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin," Dec. 17, 2024
PolitiFact, "‘Samantha Hyde’ was not the Apalachee High School shooter. That’s a recurring meme," Sept. 5, 2024
PolitiFact, "Fact-checking misinformation about the Uvalde, Texas school shooter," May 25, 2022
PolitiFact, "No, this picture does not show Thomas Matthew Crooks was transgender," July 23, 2024
PolitiFact, "No evidence of rising LGBTQ+ violent extremism or 'trans terrorism'," Feb. 26, 2024
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