On Wednesday, 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel went to school full of plans for the future. His mother, Mollie, on Wednesday gave him $20 to go to Starbucks with his siblings after school. It was going to be the first time he ordered on his own.
He was looking forward to finishing the first Harry Potter book and starting the second one, his parents said Friday. He wanted to learn how to make beef Wellington. He was excited about his father coaching him in flag football. There were Lego structures to build. More grilled cheese sandwiches to make. More frogs, bunnies, worms and turtles to bring into the house and inspect.
All of that was cut short that morning when an assailant armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a handgun fired on the school as Fletcher and other children sat in a Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, mere days after he had started third grade.
Fletcher and a 10-year-old student, Harper Moyski, were killed. And at least 15 children between the ages of 6 and 15, along with three adults in their 80s, were injured. The toll is only beginning to be felt by family members, friends, the school and the city.
In a statement given to other news outlets, including KARE-TV of Minneapolis, Harper’s parents described their daughter as someone who was full of happiness and infectious energy.
“Harper was a bright, joyful and deeply loved 10-year-old whose laughter, kindness and spirit touched everyone who knew her,” they said.
They added: “Our hearts are broken not only as parents, but also for Harper’s sister, who adored her big sister and is grieving an unimaginable loss. As a family, we are shattered, and words cannot capture the depth of our pain.”
They continued: “Harper’s light will always shine through us.”
Fletcher had been a student at the school since kindergarten and had recently jumped up and down with delight when he found out his friends would be in his class, his parents said. He often brought his friends toys and Pokémon cards, and he recently picked out a bouquet of flowers for his teacher.
Like his father, Jesse Merkel, Fletcher loved to fish. At the lake near his home, where neighbors swore there were no fish, Fletcher caught one and paraded it around the community to prove people wrong. On a trip last year, he caught his first walleye and a bowfin.
“That was one of the happiest moments I’d ever seen him,” Mr. Merkel said. “He was so proud.”
Fletcher was already independent — he could make scrambled eggs and those grilled cheese sandwiches on his own. But on Friday, his mother’s memories also went back to that very first day they were together. “We loved him immediately when he was placed on my chest and Jesse had him in his arms,” Mollie Merkel said.
Many students remain hospitalized from gunshot wounds they sustained in the shooting. Sophia Forchas, 12, was critically injured. The Rev. Timothy Sas of St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church in Minneapolis, who spent time at the hospital with her family, said that Sophia had undergone surgery and that her prognosis might not be clear for a few more days.
“This is a difficult, difficult injury that she had,” Father Sas said on Thursday.
A seventh grader at Annunciation Catholic School, Sophia is a fixture at St. Mary’s. She has attended Sunday school, gone to camps and participated in a dance troupe. At Annunciation, Sophia plays sports and is involved in other activities, Father Sas said. When Sophia was injured, she was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center, the same hospital where her mother works as a nurse.
Metropolitan Nathanael of Chicago, who leads the Greek Orthodox Church in the Midwest, said he had also met with Sophia’s relatives at the hospital.
“They’re surrounded by their family, many friends from the community, from the parish and beyond,” he said, adding, “They would like everyone to just kindly continue to pray for them.”
Beyond the physical injuries from the shooting, parents have begun to worry about the emotional scars their children will face.
Astoria Safe, 10, sustained a head injury when a bullet grazed her. Her father, Brock Safe, said that bullet fragments had lodged in the top of her head and that Astoria had a follow-up appointment with her primary care doctor next week. The family has also been advised to meet with surgeons in four weeks, he said, to confirm an earlier recommendation to leave the fragments in place. Doctors originally told them that this would be the safer option and would not cause long-term issues.
“She’s doing well physically, as well as you can possibly imagine based on the situation that she was in,” he said. “She’s a walking, talking miracle.”
But navigating the emotional trauma from the shooting has been more challenging, he said, noting that Astoria’s sister, who was also in the chapel, had seen friends being shot “to her left and right.”
“This will never be fixed, ever,” Mr. Safe said in a text message later. “All we can do as parents is to give all our love to our daughters and provide them with the resources needed to deal with the new normal this unbelievable tragedy will have on them for the rest of their lives. We’re all living in an impossible situation and are doing our best to navigate it in the best way for our children.”
In their statement, Harper’s family urged others to seek change to address gun violence and mental health problems in society. “Change is possible, and it is necessary — so that Harper’s story does not become yet another in a long line of tragedies,” they said.
At Fletcher’s home, his family — there are three siblings, two of whom were also in the church that morning — has begun to feel his absence intensely. Fletcher loved to snuggle at night with his siblings and his dog, Clementine. They all moved last summer to their new house, where Fletcher had helped design the bathroom to be buffalo-themed, for his favorite animal. He once had buffaloes on his pajamas and had buffalo faces on cupcakes for his third birthday. A stuffed buffalo remains on his bed.
Christina Morales is a Times reporter covering Latino communities in the United States.
Mitch Smith is a Chicago-based national correspondent for The Times, covering the Midwest and Great Plains.
The post Families of Minnesota Shooting Victims Pay Loving Tributes appeared first on New York Times.
