(NEXSTAR) — Two young children are dead and more than a dozen others are injured after a gunman fired shots through the windows of a church at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis during a Wednesday morning Mass, police said during a press conference. The suspected shooter is dead.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said calls came in shortly before 8:30 a.m. CT of a shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, located on the city’s south side. Many of the officers who responded are “deeply traumatized by what they saw,” he said.
Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed in the pews they were sitting in, O’Hara said. An additional 17 people sitting in the church were injured, 14 of which are children and three are adults in their 80s who were attending the Mass.
Children’s Minnesota, a pediatric trauma hospital, said seven children between the ages of 9 and 16 were admitted for care. Hennepin Healthcare, which has Minnesota’s largest emergency department, said it was caring for adults, as well as children between 6 and 14 years old.
“We lost two angels today,” principal Matt Devoer said.
“All remaining victims are expected to survive,” O’Hara added in a Wednesday afternoon press conference. “There is a range of injuries, however.”
The shooter was identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who has no prior criminal history. Westman was armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol, O’Hara said. The shooter used the weapons to fire shots from the outside, through the windows of Annunciation Church, while students and parishioners were attending a morning Mass.
O’Hara said it is believed that the shooter used all three weapons during the shooting, which he also described as “deliberate.”
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” said the police chief, who noted that wooden planks had been placed to barricade some of the church doors from the outside.
He said the shooter was found dead in the rear of the church of what appears to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Authorities have not yet disclosed whether the shooter had any connection to Annunciation. The shooter posted a “manifesto” on YouTube which was uploaded to coincide with the shooting, O’Hara said. The video has been taken down and is being reviewed by investigators.
Police declined to comment on a possible motive as the investigation continued Wednesday. In a post on X, FBI Director Kash Patel said the shooting is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.
Shortly after 10 a.m. CT, students and families could be seen walking away from the school. Many were trickling out of the school with adults, giving lingering hugs and wiping away tears.
O’Hara said “dozens” of children were inside the church at the time of the shooting. The first day of school was on Monday, and an all-school Mass was scheduled at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to its website.
Bill Bienemann, who lives near the church, told The Associated Press he heard “sporadic” gunfire that went on for “several minutes.” Bienemann’s daughter, Alexandra, attended Annunciation School for nine years.
“It breaks my heart. It makes me sick to my stomach knowing that there’s probably people that I know that are either injured or maybe they were even killed,” Alexandra told The Associated Press. “It doesn’t make me feel safe at all in this community that I’ve been a part of for so long.”
Aubrey Pannhoff, a 16-year-old student at a different Catholic school, stood crying just outside the police cordon. She had rushed to Annunciation after her own school’s lockdown and prayer service, and she said she was asking God: “Why?”
“It’s little kids,” she said. “It’s just really hard for me to take in.”
“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at the news conference with the police chief. “These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.”
Joining local leaders speaking at the scene on Wednesday, Gov. Tim Walz described the shooting as “unthinkable but all too common.”
“Minnesotans will not step away. We’ll stand with this community,” Walz said.
On Truth Social, President Donald Trump said he was briefed on the “tragic shooting” and that the White House would continue to monitor it. 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.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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