This article was prepared for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Wisconsin Watch. Subscribe to Dispatches to receive such stories as soon as they are published.
Minutes before 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow opened fire at her school in Madison, Wisconsin, murder two people and myself last montha social media account believed to belong to her posted a photo on X of someone sitting in a cubicle and making a hand gesture that has become a symbol of white supremacy.
When news of the shooting broke, another X user replied: “Live.”
Extremism researchers believe the second account belonged to 17-year-old Solomon Henderson, who police say walked into the cafeteria of his high school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday and fired 10 shots, killing one classmate and then himself. The archive of another X account linked to him shows that he posted a photo similar to the photo of Rupnov in his last moments.
While there is no evidence that Rupnow and Henderson planned their attacks together, extremism researchers who tracked their social media activity told Wisconsin Watch and ProPublica that the two teenagers were active on the same Internet networks that glorify mass shooters, even intersecting. On various social media platforms, netizens trade hateful memes alongside terrorist literature, share tips on how to effectively carry out attacks, and encourage each other to carry out their own.
Researchers have been tracking the networks for months as part of a study of growing online extremist networks that have spread through games, chat rooms and social media platforms and which they believe are radicalizing young people to commit mass shootings and other forms of violence.
The researchers’ analysis found only a few instances where Rupnow and Henderson appeared to interact directly. But in the hours, days and weeks after the Madison shooting, Henderson seems fixated on Rupnav. He bragged on X that he and Rupnow were “mutual”, a common internet term for stalking each other, and shared another message saying: “I used to be mutual with someone who is now a real school shooter ;-)” .
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Obtained by Wisconsin Watch and ProPublica. Screenshots from ProPublica. Blurred by ProPublica.
The researchers, who have worked with counterterrorism organizations, academics and law enforcement agencies to prevent violence by tracking how extremist networks are radicalizing young people online, agreed to share the information on condition that they remain anonymous out of concern for their physical safety. News outlets checked their credentials with several experts in the field.
It’s impossible to know with absolute certainty that online accounts belong to specific people without special access to devices and accounts from law enforcement. Metropolitan Nashville Police Department admitted the existence of two documents they believe Henderson created, both of which contain details of his social media accounts. Other researchers and groups — including Anti-Defamation Leaguea Canadian expert on extremism Marc-Andre Argentinian and SITE Intelligence Group — also determined that they probably belonged to Henderson.
Extremism researchers linked the accounts to Rupnow, known as Samantha, by tracing her activities across multiple social media profiles that revealed shared biographical details, including personal acquaintances and the fact that she lived in Wisconsin. In the bathroom message, one person the account regularly interacted with called Rupnow by her nickname “Sam.” Wisconsin Watch and ProPublica were able to verify social media posts and connections between accounts by tracking researchers’ activities through social media account archives and screenshots.
ABC News on Thursday citing law enforcement sources in a report that a social media account associated with Henderson may have been in contact with Rupnow’s social media account. Information reviewed by Wisconsin Watch and ProPublica details their alleged connections and interactions. Almost all of the accounts that researchers linked to Rupnav and Henderson are now suspended.
A spokesman for the Madison Police Department said the agency is aware that Rupnow “has been very active on social media” and is “just beginning” to receive and review documents from technology companies. Nashville police said they had nothing to add beyond their previous statements.
Ruby Patricia Vergara14 and Erin WestThe 42-year-old was killed at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison. Jocelyn Korea rock climbingdThe 16-year-old died at Antioch High School in Nashville. Both attackers also committed suicide.
Rupnow and Henderson had multiple X accounts, extremism researchers told Wisconsin Watch and ProPublica. At the time of the attack, Rupnov was following only 13 other users. Two of those accounts were linked to Henderson.
In November, Rupnow shared a message from Henderson that appeared to wish the man who killed more than a dozen people at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966 a Happy Veterans Day.
After the Madison attack, someone texted Henderson and others on X saying that one of their “buddies” may have “shot up the school.” Henderson told another user, “I barely know her,” and said he never exchanged private messages with her. Later, in a 51-page recording being reviewed by Nashville police, he imitated and praised several past attackers, including Rupnow, and said, “I only have contact with some of them through online messaging platforms.”
After Rupnow’s shooting, Henderson called her a “saint,” using a term common online, and posted or posted dozens of messages about her praising her racist, genocidal online persona and the fact that she had taken action. He used her photo as his profile picture on one of the platforms. In his records, he said he scratched the names of Rupnov and other criminals on his weapons and gear.
The online networks in which the two teenagers lived have different influences, ideologies and aesthetics. With varying degrees of commitment and sincerity, they attribute white supremacists, anti-Semites, racists, neo-Nazis, the occult, or Satanism.
In this online world, the currency that buys influence is violence. This violence often involves children and adolescents harming other children and adolescents, some through doxing or encouraging self-harm, others, like Rupnow and Henderson, by committing mass attacks in the non-virtual world.
“This network can best be described as an internet subculture that glorifies violent attacks and radicalises young people to commit violence,” said one of the violence prevention researchers. “Many of the individuals involved in this network are minors and we would like to see intervention to give them the help and support they need for their own safety and the safety of those around them.”
Members of some of these communities, including Terrorgram, 764 and Com, engaged in online and offline activities that led to beliefs for possession of child sexual abuse materials and child sexual exploitation indictments for inciting hate crimes and inciting the murder of federal officials. The cases are under consideration, the defendants have not filed answers with the court. This month, the US State Department designated the Terrorgram Collective as terrorist organizationsaying that “the group promotes violent white supremacy, incites attacks on perceived adversaries, and provides guidance and training materials on the tactics, methods, and targets of attacks, including targeting critical infrastructure and government officials.”
As details of the Nashville shooting began to emerge, investigators realized they had seen some of Henderson’s accounts and posts on the network of about 100 users they monitor. They previously notified law enforcement about one account username belonging to Henderson, as well as others on the network, and filed multiple reports with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
They were unaware of Rupnow’s accounts before her attack, but were able to track her down online after the fact, discovering that she regularly interacted with other accounts they monitored.
Alex Newhouse, an extremism researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said these subcultures have a long history of copying and imitating past attackers, inciting each other to commit as much violence as possible — even assigning “grades” to past attacks, something Henderson does online. “Antioch is very clearly a copycat,” Newhouse said.
Although Henderson’s diary indicates that he had been contemplating the attack months before Rupnow’s attack, her shooting caught his attention. Hours later, he retweeted another post saying: “There must be a betting market for rw twitter number to radicalize the next shooter.” (RW means right side.)
Although the two teenagers have entered this internet subculture, their writings reveal despair at their personal lives and the world around them and express violent, hateful views.
After the Madison shooting, an individual social media user noted their connection and tweeted the FBI, accusing Henderson and others of being tipped off. They “should be shut down,” the poster said, “no questions asked.”
The FBI declined to comment. After Henderson’s attack, social media users returned to tweet, “Hey, so this guy literally ended up calling a would-be school shooter a month early and the FBI did nothing about it.”
Molly Simon contributed to the study.
