The survey shows how two school shooters followed similar arcs. They joined an online extremist chat and took their own attacks a few months later.
It turns out that a school shooting in Wisconsin killed two people and the shooter is dead too
The teacher and students died after filming the school at the Rich Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin.
He was a 17-year-old student in Nashville. She was 15 years old and lived in Wisconsin. They joined the same chat room and found themselves together in the archer of a growing club – US school, following each other online, months later.
According to an August 21 survey provided to USA Today, Prophylactic Measures League investigators discovered impressive similarities between the two young killers and the path that took away their crushed family and community.
The paths they took included watching videos of graphic violence, celebrating other shooters online, following white supremacists, investigators found. 17-year-old Solomon Henderson killed a student and injured another in January at Antioch High School in Tennessee. Natalie Lupnow, 15, killed two students and injured six in December at the Rich Christian School of Living in Madison, Wisconsin. Both committed suicide after the attack.
The ADL said “two teens. Two school shootings. One digital” shows the fatal impact of online militant communities, the report said.
“Today’s children and teens spend their lives with easy access to the internet, and are at an even greater risk of encountering violent extremism online,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “The idea of extremists combined with Gore’s website can encourage users to look for more extremist content, but violence on extremist platforms encourages others to look for even more violent content, a malicious cycle, especially for young people.”
He said the study was intended to prevent future attacks.
ADL investigators discovered that the student became a shooter 18-19 months after he took part in the Graphic Violence Chat Room Watch Pady. The two also followed each other online. Rupnow followed Henderson on December 3, a few weeks before the December 3 shooting in Wisconsin, researchers found.
Henderson called out her “Saneless” in his online diary and made a round-trip by creating a Tiktok celebrating the attack on January 22nd seven days before his own strike.
According to a report by the Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network, one of Rupnow’s online friends was arrested in Florida for threatening to launch a mass shooting.
ADL research appears as students all over the country return to school. According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, there were several school shooter incidents between 2024 and 2025. Among them were attacks in Tennessee, Wisconsin, and at Appalachie High School in Georgia. According to the database, the number of filming incidents increased from six in the previous academic year.
Two school shooters timeline
The pair of shooters joined Watch Peopleledie just nine days apart from each other. ADL researchers separated the timing of the attack after just over a month. According to the survey:
◾June 20, 2023: Henderson has created an online chat room account where visitors can post and view photos and videos of graphic violence, including murder, according to the ADL.
◾June 29, 2023: Rupnow creates his own account in the chat room.
◾October 8, 2023: Henderson posts True Crime Community (TCC) memes on X. TCC is an internet subculture where people discuss mass violence and sometimes celebrate shooters.
◾December 29, 2023: Rupnow follows an account dedicated to the neo-Nazis who killed 69 people in Norway in 2011. This account celebrates similar shooters.
◾January 20, 2024: Henderson begins violent and misogynistic posts on a recognized incel forum. He is a regular on the platform and averages 20 posts per day in points. According to ADL, Incel is a heterosexual man who denies women’s lack of romantic success.
◾May 19, 2024: Rupnow begins a message to Damien Allen, a Florida man who was arrested in April for threatening to carry out mass shootings. According to the Palm Beach Post, Allen told her.
◾October 18th: Henderson, who was black, creates an online diary celebrating violence and white supremacists. “Mass shooters are cool kids,” he wrote in November.
◾December 3rd: rupnow follows Henderson’s X account, employing the username “Postalbrained”.
◾December 16th: Rupnow performs a wealth of life shooting, killing two, and injuring six before killing them.
◾December 18th: Henderson creates a Discord account dedicated to Rupnow. In January he also created a Tiktok to celebrate her.
◾January 22nd: Henderson fires Antioch, killing one student and injuring another student before killing himself.
The 17-year-old took part in an online chat room and shot just 19 months later to watch extreme graphic violence. The 15-year-old girl carried out the attack 18 months after joining the group.
What happened after the shooting?
The shooting itself wasn’t the final chapter.
The parents of Josselin Corea Escalante, a 16-year-old student killed in the Antioch attack, are suing Metronashville public schools for the shooting, according to a Tennessee report, part of the USA Today Network.
The family argued that Metronashville public schools should know that fellow students, shooters, should take steps to pose a risk to students and prevent violence. They also allege that the district was neglecting to operate the school’s security system because it failed to detect the shooter’s firearm.
Jeffrey Lupnow faces charges despite her daughter using his firearm. However, he filed an motion to ask the judge to dismiss the charges, according to a report by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, part of the USA Today Network.
Elder Lupuneau claims he did not allow his daughter to access the safe where she kept the gun. He told her the code was his Social Security number, but he insisted that he never gave her any numbers or other clues.
Allen could be in prison for 21 years on charges of mass shooting, illegal use of police badges and threatening illegal use of cell phones, the Palm Beach Post reported.
Waiting period for gun purchases and other laws reduce gun deaths among young people
Certain gun laws, including safe storage and mandatory waiting periods, reduce firearm-related suicides among young people.
Extremist online community
ADL investigators found that the pair of American students were not only familiar with each other, but also in close contact with others who celebrated the shooting and even those who attempted the attack.
In addition to Allen in Florida, Lupnoux joined the online community, where a live stream of white supremacists outside of a Turkish mosque watched the attack. The 18-year-old attacker was armed with a hatch and two knives, causing five injuries before being arrested. Rupnow then sent a message celebrating the attack even if no one was dead, according to the ADL.
The attack in Turkey played a direct role in inspiring Lupnow’s attack in Wisconsin, ADL said she said in some of her writings.
According to ADL, Rupnow was the closest encounter Henderson had with another shooter. He found out that she followed him in X and began to praise her, calling her “Saneless” in his online diary. The term is a twist in the way Incels refers to violent members of their community as saints, ADL said.
The ADL said the pair took the path of murder for the online community that took part in its glory and encouraged violence. Henderson, a black man, and Lupneau, a girl, show that extremist ideology can reach people regardless of race or gender, ADL said.
ADL leaders hope that the findings of the survey will encourage parents and school leaders to rethink which types of online access students have. The anti-hate organization shares a timeline of how two students became shooters alongside 16,000 school supervisors, according to a news release.
“Extremists, hatred, violent Gore is just clicking for many children, making it urgent for schools and parents to implement safeguards,” said Oren Segal, senior vice president of anti-toxicity and intelligence at ADL. “These toxic online spaces can cause devastating harm to our community and are becoming the center of a wider, violent, extremist landscape.”
USA Today’s Network Reporter Contributor Laura Schulte of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Evan Mee Inns, Tennessee, and Hannah Phillips of the Palm Beach Post.
