Unfounded Natalie Rupnow rumors being spread in misinformation effort

Social media posts speculating about the gender of the person responsible for the Abundant Life Christian School shooting were made just hours after the deadly attack.

Natalie Rupnow, 15, opened fire at the school in Wisconsin on Tuesday, killing a teacher, and a teenager, and wounding six others, including two students, who are in critical conditions.

A teacher and three other students were taken to a hospital with less serious injuries, and two of them were later discharged.

Rupnow, who was identified during a press conference on Monday night, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound when officers arrived at the school and died on the way to a hospital, said local police chief Shon Barnes.

She was a student at the school, which has about 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

In the coverage that followed, rumors appeared online claiming Rupnow was trans despite any evidence, a pattern of behavior that has become typical in the wake of school and mass shootings.

A post on X, formerly Twitter, by user Todd with Trump, posted on December 16, 2024, and viewed 77,000 times, said: "Samantha Rupnow...born a biological female but identified as a male, decides to take others out with her/him.

"These school shootings have nothing to do with guns. NOTHING! They have EVERYTHING to do with complete and total mental illness.

"Someone knew this could happen."

Another post by @jackunheard, posted on December 16, 2024, said: "🚨BREAKING: The Wisconsin school sh**ter has been identified as a 17-year-old male who identifies as trans."

The account of January 6 defendant John Strand also said: "BREAKING: Christian school shooter is 'transgender' Natalie Lynn Rupnow."

It appears other users may have also posted unsubstantiated claims about Rupnow that have since been deleted.

These posts about Rupnow's gender identity were unsubstantiated. They include no other information beyond the claim and were made shortly after the incident took place.

Some of the accounts that posted these rumors contain other misinformation or anti-trans content. While this alone does not indicate the truthfulness of other claims, it arguably undermines their credibility and impartiality.

These rumors were mentioned at a police press conference after the shooting, during which a reporter asked: "Chief there's been a lot of misinformation online including from Moms for Liberty activists in Wisconsin claiming that the shooter was transgender, which is a reaction that we see across the country in the wake of mass shootings, to claim that trans people are dangerous. Can you respond to that directly?"

Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said: "Yeah I don't know whether Natalie was transgender or not and, quite frankly, I don't think that's even important. I don't think that's important at all.

"I don't think that whatever happened today has anything to do with how she, or he, or they may have wanted to identify, and I wish people would leave their own personal biases out of this.

"We have people who showed up to work today, to help kids be better, who are not going home. And we have lost members of our community who are children, including the shooter.

He added: "So whether or not she was, he was, they were, transgender is something that may come out later but for what we're doing right now today, literally eight hours after a mass shooting in a school in Madison, it is of no consequence at this time."

Incidents of baseless gender identity rumors, seemingly spread to incite anti-trans sentiment online, have become a common trope of online chatter after shootings, when verified information awaits collation.

In 2022, the shooter behind the Uvalde mass shooting, in which 19 children and two adults were killed at a school in Texas, was called transgender including by Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) after unrelated photos falsely attributed to the shooter spread on social media. There is no evidence the suspect was transgender.