Two Students Found Each Other In Online Hate Communities. Both Became School Shooters

School shooting in Wisconsin kills two, shooter also found dead

A teacher and student are among the fatalities after a school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin.

He was a 17-year-old student in Nashville. She was 15 and living in Wisconsin. They joined the same chatroom, followed each other online and months later found themselves together in a growing club — U.S. school shooters.

Investigators at the Anti-Defamation League found striking similarities between the two young killers and the paths they took that shattered families and communities, according to an Aug. 21 study provided to USA TODAY.

The path they took included watching videos of graphic violence, following white supremacists online and celebrating other shooters, investigators found. Solomon Henderson, 17, wound up killing a student and injuring another in January at Antioch High School in Tennessee. Natalie Rupnow, 15, wound up killing two students and injuring six in December at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin. Both committed suicide after the attacks.

The ADL says the report "Two Teens. Two School Shootings. One Digital Descent" shows the deadly influence of online extremist communities.

"Kids and teens today have lived their entire lives with easy internet access, putting them even more at risk of encountering violent extremism online," said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. "Extremist ideas combined with gore websites can inspire users to seek out more extremist content, while violence on extremist platforms can inspire others to look for even more violent content. It's a vicious cycle, especially for young people."

He said the aim of the research is to help prevent future attacks.

ADL investigators found the students became shooters between 18 and 19 months after joining the graphic violence chatroom WatchPeopleDie. The two also followed each other online. Rupnow followed Henderson on December 3, weeks before the December 16 shooting in Wisconsin, researchers found.

Henderson reciprocated by calling her "saintress" in his online diary and creating a TikTok celebrating her attack seven days before his own strike on January 22. 

One of Rupnow’s online friends was arrested in April in Florida for threatening to carry out a mass shooting, according to reporting by The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network. 

The ADL research comes out just as students around the nation are heading back to school. There were several school shooter incidents over the course of the 2024 to 2025 academic year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. Among them were the attacks in Tennessee, Wisconsin and an attack at Apalachee High School in Georgia that left four dead. The number of shootings was up from six during the previous academic year, according to the database.

The pair of shooters joined WatchPeopleDie just nine days apart from each other. A little over a month separated the timing of their attacks a year and a half later, ADL researchers found. According to the research:

• June 20, 2023: Henderson creates an account for the online chatroom where visitors can post and view photos and videos of graphic violence, including murder, according to the ADL.
• June 29, 2023: Rupnow creates her own account on the chatroom.
• Oct. 8, 2023: Henderson posts a True Crime Community (TCC) meme on X. TCC is an internet subculture where people discuss mass violence and sometimes celebrate shooters.
• Dec. 29, 2023: Rupnow follows an account dedicated to a neo-Nazi who killed 69 people in Norway in 2011. The account celebrates similar shooters. 
• Jan. 20, 2024: Henderson begins making violent, misogynistic posts on a recognized incel forum. He’s a regular on the platform, averaging 20 posts a day at points. Incels are heterosexual men who blame women for their lack of romantic success, according to the ADL. 
• May 19, 2024: Rupnow begins messaging Damien Allen, a man in Florida who was arrested in April for threatening to carry out a mass shooting. "Once you get to a point, there's no going back," Allen told her, according to The Palm Beach Post. 
• Oct. 18, 2024: Henderson, who was Black, creates an online diary where he celebrates violence and white supremacists. "Mass Shooters are Cool Kids," he wrote in November. 
• Dec. 3, 2024: Rupnow, adopting the username "Postalbrained," follows Henderson’s X account.
• Dec. 16, 2024: Rupnow carries out the Abundant Life shooting, killing two and injuring six before killing herself. 
• Dec. 18, 2024: Henderson creates a Discord account dedicated to Rupnow. In January he also creates a TikTok celebrating her.
• Jan. 22, 2025: Henderson carries out the Antioch shooting, killing one student and injuring another before killing himself.

The 17-year-old carried out the shooting just 19 months after joining the online chatroom to watch extreme graphic violence. The 15-year-old girl carried out her attack 18 months after joining the group.

The shootings themselves weren't the final chapter, as legal consequences continue to emerge.

The parents of Josselin Corea Escalante, a 16-year-old student killed in the Antioch attack, are suing Metro Nashville Public Schools over the shooting, according to reporting by The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Family members argued that Metro Nashville Public Schools should have known the shooter, a fellow student, posed a danger to students and should have taken steps to prevent violence. They also argue the school district was negligent in operating its school security system because it failed to detect the shooter's firearm.

Jeffrey Rupnow is facing charges over his daughter’s use of his firearm. But he filed a motion on Aug. 18 asking the judge to dismiss the charges, according to reporting by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network. 

The elder Rupnow argues that he didn’t allow his daughter to access the safe where he kept the gun. He told her that the code was his Social Security number in reverse but argued he never gave her the numbers or any other clues.

Allen faces potentially 21 years in prison on charges of threatening a mass shooting, unlawful use of a police badge and unlawful use of a cellphone, The Palm Beach Post reported.

ADL investigators found the pair of American students were not just familiar with each other, but were also in close contact with other people who celebrated shootings, were interested in carrying them out and even people who attempted attacks.

In addition to Allen in Florida, Rupnow joined an online community to watch a white supremacist livestream an attack outside a mosque in Turkey. The 18-year-old attacker was armed with a hatchet and two knives and injured five people before he was arrested. Afterwards, Rupnow sent messages celebrating the attack even though no one died, according to the ADL. 

The attack in Turkey played a direct role in inspiring Rupnow’s attack in Wisconsin, the ADL said she stated in some of her writings.

Rupnow was the closest encounter with another shooter that Henderson had, according to the ADL. He learned that she had followed him on X and began admiring her, referring to her in his online diary as a "saintress." The term is a twist on the way incels refer to violent members of their community as saints, the ADL said. 

The ADL said that the pair went down the path of murder because of the online communities they participated in that glorified and encouraged violence. Henderson, who was Black, and Rupnow, who was a girl, also show that extremist ideology can reach people regardless of race or gender, the ADL said. 

ADL leaders hope the investigation’s findings will prompt parents and school leaders to reconsider what type of online access students have. The anti-hate organization is sharing the timeline of how the two students became shooters with 16,000 school superintendents, according to a news release. 

"Extremism, hate, and violent gore are just a click away for many children — making it urgent for schools and parents to implement safeguards," said Oren Segal, the ADL’s senior vice president of Counter-Extremism and Intelligence. "These toxic online spaces can cause devastating harm in our communities and are increasingly becoming central to the broader violent extremist landscape."

Contributing by USA TODAY Network reporters Laura Schulte of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Evan Mealins of The Tennessean and Hannah Phillips of The Palm Beach Post.