MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A shooter opened fire Wednesday morning during Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school, killing two children and injuring 17 other people before killing himself, officials said.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooter — armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol — approached the side of the church and shot through the windows toward the children sitting in the pews during Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School.
The school was evacuated, and students’ families were later directed to a “reunification zone” at the school. President Donald Trump and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in separate social media posts that they had been briefed on the shooting.
Here's the latest:
Pope Leo XIV calls the shooting a ‘terrible tragedy’ and prays for the relatives of the dead and those injured
Pope Leo XIV has sent a telegram of condolences over the shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, calling it a “terrible tragedy” and saying he was praying for relatives of the dead and injured “at this extremely difficult time.”
Leo, history’s first American pope, said he was “profoundly saddened” to learn about the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School church. He sent his condolences “to all those affected by this terrible tragedy, especially the families now grieving the loss of a child.”
The Chicago-born Leo said he was praying for those injured and the medical teams and first responders at the scene, and for the broader Catholic community.
The telegram was signed by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and was addressed to Archbishop Bernard Hebda, the archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis.
-Nicole Winfield
US Conference of Catholic Bishops releases statement, asking for healing
In response to the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minn., Archbishop William E. Lori, vice-president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement.
“As a Church, we are following the tragic news from Annunciation School in Minneapolis with heartbreaking sadness. Whenever one part of the Body of Christ is wounded, we feel the pain as if it were our very own children. Let us all beg the Lord for the protection and healing of the entire Annunciation family.”
Trump orders flags at half-staff to mark Minneapolis shooting
The White House said in a post on X that Trump signed a proclamation Wednesday afternoon ordering flags to be lowered at all government buildings until sunset on Sunday “as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence.”
‘Minnesota is heartbroken’
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted on X: “Minnesota is heartbroken. From the officers responding, to the clergy and teachers providing comfort, to the hospital staff saving lives, we will get through this together. Hug your kids close.”
15 children and 2 adults are being treated at trauma hospitals
Hennepin Healthcare, the main trauma hospital in Minneapolis, said in a statement that they received 10 patients, including eight children — aged 6 through 14 — and two adults. Seven were considered to be in critical condition.
The hospital previously said it had received 11 patients.
Children’s Minnesota, a pediatric trauma hospital, said it admitted seven children ages 9 through 16.
Authorities say the shooter is believed to have acted alone
The police chief said the shooter was in his early 20s, did not have an extensive known criminal history and is believed to have acted alone, but did not release the name or information on possible connections to the school.
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that authorities have identified the shooter as Robin Westman. That official was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
— Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed from Washington.
‘I don’t know where He is’
Michael Simpson said his 10-year-old grandson, Weston Halsne, was nicked by a bullet as he sat by the church windows on Wednesday.
His voice shaking as he left the area around the school, Simpson said the violence during Mass on the third day of school left him wondering whether God was watching over.
“I don’t know where He is,” Simpson said.
‘It’s just really hard for me to take in’
Aubrey Pannhoff, a 16-year-old student at a nearby Catholic school, stood crying just outside the police cordon around Annunciation Catholic School.
She went on a mission trip to Colorado with Annunciation earlier this summer and to the school after her own school’s lockdown and prayer service.
“I’m just asking him (God) why right now. It’s little kids,” she said.
One of her mission trip leaders’ children was grazed by a bullet, Pannhoff said, and she doesn’t know how the other teachers are. “It’s just really hard for me to take in.”
Trump has spoken with Walz, the White House says
That follows the president opting not to speak to Walz, who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in last year’s election against Trump, when a gunman killed one Minnesota state lawmaker and wounded another in meticulously planned attacks earlier this year.
Trump also said in a previous social media post that he had been briefed on the “tragic shooting” and that the White House would continue to monitor it.
The shooting comes 2 months after the top Democrat in the state House was killed
The June 14 shootings in the northern Minneapolis suburbs left former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, dead. A state senator and his wife were also seriously injured. Authorities say they were attacked at their homes by a man disguised as a police officer.
The alleged gunman, Vance Boelter of Green Isle, is facing federal and state murder charges and other counts. He was indicted in July on six federal counts of murder, stalking and firearms violations. He pleaded not guilty to those charges earlier this month in federal court. The murder charges could carry the federal death penalty, though prosecutors haven’t decided yet whether to pursue that option.
Boelter also faces state charges, including two counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted first-degree murder and charges of impersonating a police officer and animal cruelty. The maximum penalty on the state charges is life in prison because Minnesota doesn’t have the death penalty.
At least 9 children are being treated at a trauma hospital
Hennepin Healthcare, the main trauma hospital in Minneapolis, received 11 patients, including nine children and two adults, said Dr. Thomas Wyatt, the chair of emergency medicine, during a press briefing.
There were no deaths among any of the 11 patients brought there. Four of the patients were taken to operating rooms.
The children brought to Hennepin were ages six through 14.
Police chief says the shooting was a ‘deliberate act of violence against innocent children’
“The sheer cruelty and cowardice, firing into a church full of children, is absolutely incomprehensible,” O’Hara said during the briefing.
Police chief: Suspect is believed to have fired all 3 weapons: a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol
He said it appears all or most of the shooting was done from outside. Police found no casings inside.
Authorities also found a smoke bomb but no explosives at the scene.
Minneapolis police say the shooting left 3 dead, including the shooter
The police chief said dozens of children were inside the mass at the time of the shooting. Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews, he added.
Seventeen other people were wounded — 14 of them children, the police chief said.
O’Hara said the shooter, in his early 20s, shot himself behind the church.
Officials believed he acted alone and are investigating what he left behind that would speak to his motive.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara says the shooting unfolded during a mass at the church
O’Hara said officers responded to a report of a shooting during a mass at the church that was meant to the first week of school for children attending the Catholic school.
The police chief said the shooter was armed with a shotgun, a rifle and a pistol. He said the shooter fired the rifle through the church windows toward children sitting in the pews and struck children and worshippers inside.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says children are dead after shooting at Catholic school
“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now,” Frey said at a news conference outside the school. “These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.”
Locals express shock and sadness
Bill Bienemann, who lives a couple of blocks away and has long attended Mass at Annunciation Church, said he heard dozens of shots, perhaps as many as 50, over as long as four minutes.
“I was shocked. I said, ‘There’s no way that could be gunfire,’” he said. “There was so much of it. It was sporadic.”
Bienemann’s daughter, Alexandra, said she attended the school from kindergarten to eighth grade, finishing in 2014. After she heard of the shooting, she said she was shaking and crying, and her boss told her to take the day off.
“It breaks my heart, makes me sick to my stomach, knowing that there are people I know who are either injured or maybe even killed,” Alexandra Bienemann said. “It doesn’t make me feel safe at all in this community that I have been in for so long.”
The scene outside
Outside of the school, amid a heavy uniformed law enforcement presence, children stood dressed in their dark green shirts or dresses.
Many were trickling out of the school with adults, giving lingering hugs and wiping away tears.
The shooting is the latest act of gun violence in Minneapolis
One person was killed and six others were hurt in a shooting on Tuesday afternoon outside a high school in Minneapolis. Hours later, two people died in two other shootings in the city.
This was the first week back to class for Annunciation School
Dating to 1923, the prekindergarten through eighth grade school had an all-school Mass scheduled at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to its website.
Monday was the first day of school, and social media photos from that day show students in green uniforms greeting each other at bicycle racks, smiling for the camera and sitting together.
What we kno
w about the shooting so far
A shooting occurred Wednesday morning during the first week of classes at a Minneapolis Catholic school, Minnesota’s governor said. Authorities gave no immediate information on the number of injuries, but Gov. Tim Walz called the shooting “horrific.”
The Minneapolis city government said the shooter had been “contained” after the gunfire at Annunciation Catholic School and there was no longer any “active threat” to residents.
Walz said on social media that he had been briefed on the shooting. “I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence,” Walz wrote on X.
As police, FBI and other federal agents and ambulances converged on the school, a person answering the phone there said students were being evacuated.
A spokesperson for Hennepin Healthcare, which has Minnesota’s largest emergency department, said in a text message that it was actively dealing with an emergency and provided no additional details. A social media post from the company said it was caring for patients from the shooting.
▶ Read more about the Minneapolis shooting
