Two children, ages 8 and 10, are dead Wednesday following a shooting at Annunciation Church in south Minneapolis, where students at the Catholic school there gathered for Mass to celebrate the beginning of the school year.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara identified the shooter as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who committed suicide at the scene.
Another 17 people were injured — 14 of them children. Two of the injured are in critical condition, O’Hara said.
The shooter approached the church from the outside, barricaded the front door with plywood and shot dozens of rounds through the windows, O’Hara said.
Outside the school after the shooting, parents were picking up their children, who wore the green polos that are the school uniform.
Susan Ruff, a neighbor whose children attended the school at Annunciation and has a grandson currently enrolled, said she saw the shooting from her window. She witnessed a man dressed in black, wearing a helmet, with a long gun, shooting at the church from the outside. She heard 25 or 30 gun shots. “It sounded like someone was dropping a dumpster. That loud bang. But I kept hearing it, so I thought, that’s not a dumpster.” Her grandson was unhurt in the shooting.
Jeremy Graff, 50, lives two blocks from the school and said he’s lived in the south Minneapolis neighborhood his whole life. He said his neighbors messaged him around 8:45 a.m. to say they heard a round of gunshots near the campus. He said he has about a dozen friends with kids who go to the school.
“I would like to say it’s surprising, but it’s really not nowadays,” Graff said.
Officers were sweeping the neighborhood and backyards with dogs and interviewing neighbors.
Jack Freedman, 25, went to the school and lives in the area. He said, “You never think that it’s going to happen at the school you went to, but then you start thinking how naive to believe that. Because it happens everywhere.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who also spokee at the press conference, grew emotional at times: “And don’t just say, this is about thoughts and prayers right now,” he said, referring to what has become a rote response to school shootings, often unaccompanied by any action. “These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said that the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and State Patrol are on the scene.
“I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence,” Walz said in a social media post.
Giffords, the national gun control group, released a statement by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot and severely injured in a mass shooting in 2011: “When will enough be enough? I am devastated by the news of a mass shooting at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis. No one should have to fear for their lives when attending religious services.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
by Max Nesterak and Michelle Griffith, Minnesota Reformer
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