Nashville school shooter mimicked photos posted by other teenage killers

Madison, WI and Nashville shooters were connected online and shared white nationalist images, symbols, and messages on Twitter/X, BlueSky, and Pinterest. Lack of content moderation allows this.

Note: This article has photos of school shooters and mass shooters because if parents don’t know what they look like and recognize specific poses/symbols, they might miss the warning signs before an attack.

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Just before opening fire inside Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, WI in December, the 15-year-old girl who committed the attack went into the bathroom to post a photo of the “OK” sign. While sitting in a stall, she gives the sign between her two black combat boots.

A month later in Nashville, TN, a 17-year-old student posed for exactly the same photo before he opened fire in the cafeteria at the start of lunch inside Antioch High School in Nashville, TN.

The hand gesture commonly used to connote “OK” was co-opted in 2017 by members of the far-right and white supremacists who recast the symbol to mean “white power” — indicated by the W and P formed by the hand. The use of the hand gesture has since become a common occurrence at far-right rallies and among some Trump supporters who make it to taunt opponents.

One of the Nashville shooter’s usernames on social media was a direct homage to the Madison, WI school shooter. Her last name was Rupnow and he combined that with '“groyper”—a term used with white nationalist and neo-nazi groups—referring to young men who claim to be “involuntarily celibate” with violent misogynistic views.

Like other school shooters and mass shooters, he wrote messages on his gun including “TND” (total nig**r death) which is a common abbreviation posted online by white nationalist groups. As Dr. Tahir Rahman explained on my podcast in December, guns with inscriptions are symbols of violent ideology rather than tools for utility. School shooters and mass shooters frequently write messages on their weapons. A fixation on guns as a symbol of identity and power is a red flag for mass violence.

Also like many other mass shooters, the Nashville school shooter was affiliated with the US Military and a member of the ROTC. Current or former military members commit mass shootings at 4x the rate of the civilian population. Of the 197 mass shootings with 4+ fatalities between 1966-2023, 52 perpetrators (26%) served in the US military compared to only 6% of US adults who have served.

His identity as a ROTC cadet was clearly important to him because he posted a photo in his uniform with a message about the attack on the final page of his online manifesto.

In other photos, he is wearing a “Negative XP” t-shirt (a band glorified by prior school shooters and neo-nazis).

Prior to the shooting, he shared a photo of the clothes he planned to wear for the attack including a Negative XP shirt, an Army shirt, and black combat boots.

Before opening fire inside Santa Fe High in 2018, the teenage shooter also posted photos of the outfit he planned to wear during the attack (including an explanation of the nazi and white nationalist symbols on it).

Connection to Madison, WI School Shooter

Police believe the 17-year-old in Nashville was in contact with the 15-year-old girl who opened fire inside Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, WI in December. Both teens social media accounts were connected on Pinterest, BlueSky, and Twitter/X. It will be difficult for authorities to figure out if they had direct contact on encrypted messaging or were part of private group chats on decentralized platforms like Discord.

The Nashville school shooter even took a matching photo to mirror the Madison school shooter. Both of them are wearing black t-shirts for the bands associated with school shootings.

Natalie can be seen wearing a black shirt with the name of the band KMFDM. The German industrial rock band’s lyrics were thrust into the dark subculture of school shooters by the students who carried out the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.

In the Columbine ‘basement tapes’, Dylan Klebold can be seen wearing a black shirt with the same band on the front. It’s critical for parents to study prior school shooters, know their names and faces, and recognize symbols like KMFDM or Negative XP that represent idolization of prior attacks.

Mimicking Prior School Shooters

Two years ago, I recorded an episode for Freakonomics Radio: The Only Person That Tracks Every U.S. School Shooting. One of the points I highlighted is that school shootings are not “contagion”, they are purposeful acts of mimicry.

Because there are established symbols and narratives around being a school shooter, we can prevent these attacks if we notice the warning signs. The Nashville school shooter was posting photos mimicking prior school shooters and mass shooters because he wanted someone to notice him. These attacks are not secrets, they are loud screams by an actively suicidal teen who is looking for attention and help.

In the Nashville teen’s many overt warnings online, he copied the poses of prior school shooters including Adam Lanza (Sandy Hook Elementary) and Cho (Virginia Tech).