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5 hours ago
Updated
A heavily armed assailant fired through the windows of a Catholic church in Minneapolis where students were celebrating their first Mass of the new school year on Wednesday, killing an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old in the pews and injuring 17 others, the police said.
Children and staff members ducked for cover under the pews just as Mass was beginning at about 8:30 a.m. Central time at the Annunciation Catholic Church, which has a school for children from prekindergarten through eighth grade. Monday was the first day of school, and the all-school Mass on Wednesday was an annual tradition.
Of the 17 people injured, 14 were children ranging in age from 6 to 15, the Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, said at a news conference. Three were parishioners in their 80s, he said. All were expected to survive, he said.
The attacker, who was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Chief O’Hara said. He identified the assailant as Robin Westman, 23.
Investigators believe the attacker was a former student at the school, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. The suspect’s mother is a retired school employee, the official said.
Chief O’Hara said that investigators were examining the shooter’s YouTube account, which had been taken offline with the help of the F.B.I.
The suspect’s social media accounts contain videos of diary entries that describe the killing of children and a drawing of the Annunciation Church’s sanctuary. The videos also show weapons, bullets and what appear to be explosive devices scrawled with violent language.
“We don’t have a motive at this time,” Chief O’Hara said on Wednesday afternoon.
The guns used in the attack had been lawfully purchased, he said. At least two doors of the church had been barricaded from the outside, he said.
Ellie Mertens, 25, a youth minister at the church, said she was sitting with children in the pews when bullets started ripping through the windows. The shooting lasted for about 2 minutes, she said.
“I was just feet away from this window where it was,” Ms. Mertens said in an interview. “The pew saved my life.”
Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said at a news conference that “you cannot put into words the gravity, tragedy or absolute pain of the situation.”
Mr. Frey, a vocal advocate for stricter gun laws, added: “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.”
Here’s what else to know:
Domestic terrorism: Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, said the agency was investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.
Witness accounts: Inside the Hennepin County Medical Center emergency room, where multiple victims were taken, Za’khia Jones, 29, was with her fiancée when she saw children who appeared to be bloody being rushed in. “One kid came in and they had rushed her into a room and she was just screaming she didn’t want to die,” Ms. Jones said in an interview. Read more ›
Trump call: Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said that he spoke with President Trump by phone. Mr. Trump wrote on social media that the White House would continue to monitor the situation, and later signed a proclamation ordering that flags nationwide be lowered to half-staff until Sunday in tribute to the victims.
Minnesota violence: The attack was the fourth deadly shooting in the city in just over 24 hours. And the Twin Cities area was rattled in June when a gunman assassinated a state lawmaker and her husband and left another lawmaker and his wife hospitalized with gunshot wounds, setting off a two-day manhunt.
Jeff Ernst, Maggie Haberman, Tyler Pager and Talya Minsberg contributed reporting.
Rylee Kirk
The Annunciation church called its staff members heroic, saying in a statement that they moved students under pews within seconds of bullets being fired. It added that it would release information on when the school will resume over the weekend. In the statement, the school principal, Matthew DeBoer, and the church’s pastor, Dennis Zehren, vowed to “rebuild our future filled with hope — together.”
Chief Brian O’Hara of the Minneapolis Police said investigators were reviewing content that the suspect appeared to have posted on YouTube. That content was taken down at the request of law enforcement officials, the chief said. He did not disclose a motive for the shooting.
Chief O’Hara said the children wounded in the shooting were all expected to survive.
Chief Brian O’Hara of the Minneapolis Police said the attack killed two children, who were 8 and 10, and at least 14 children between 6 and 15 sustained gunshot wounds. Three adults in their 80s, who were attending the Mass, were also wounded, he said.
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Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, said the shooter had three weapons that were lawfully purchased.
“As horrible as this has been, it could have been far worse,” Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said. “We’ve got more guns in this country than we have people and it’s on all of us to recognize the truth and the reality that we can’t just say that this should not happen again and then allow it to happen again and again beyond that,” he added.
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Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said during a news conference that he spoke to President Trump earlier in the day about the shootings. The president expressed his deepest condolences and pledged to make federal resources available as the investigation continues, Walz said.
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At an afternoon news conference on the shooting, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said, “There shouldn’t be words for these kinds of incidents because they should not happen.”
The Rev. Bernard A. Hebda, the archbishop of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., said church officials were supporting the students and staff members affect by the shooting. “Our community is rightfully outraged at such horrific acts of violence perpetrated against the vulnerable and innocent,” he said in a statement. “They are far too commonplace.”
The F.B.I. is investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics, Kash Patel, the agency’s director, said in a statement on social media.
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William E. Lori, the vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement that church leaders were following the news of the shooting with “heartbreaking sadness” and that they were praying for healing and protection. “Whenever one part of the body of Christ is wounded, we feel the pain as if it were our very own children,” he said.
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota ordered that flags be flown at half-staff in all state buildings to honor the victims of the school shooting.
“I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence,” Walz, a former school teacher, said in a statement.
Pope Leo expressed his profound sadness at Wednesday’s shooting. In a statement, the pontiff said he sends his “heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness to all those affected by this terrible tragedy, especially the families now grieving the loss of a child.”
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The suspect’s social media accounts contain videos showing long diary entries, weapons, bullets and what appear to be explosive devices scrawled with violent language. Some of the diary entries contain elementary Russian and descriptions of killing children. In one video, the shooter shows a rendering of the Annunciation sanctuary drawn from memory.
According to court records, Robin Westman’s mother, Mary Grace Westman, submitted a petition to change her child’s name in November 2019. A judge granted the petition in January 2020 and wrote in an order making the name change official, “Minor child identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.” At the time, Robin Westman was 17.
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Some of America’s deadliest shootings in recent years have occurred at religious institutions, including churches, synagogues and temples, as well as affiliated schools.
Here’s a look at six such incidents since 2012:
Dec. 16, 2024
A Christian School in Wisconsin
A 14-year-old student and a staff member were killed in a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wis., that left one teacher and five students injured.
The authorities said a 15-year-old student carried out the attack with a handgun and then died of a self-inflicted gunshot.
March 27, 2023
A Religious School in Nashville
An armed assailant killed three students and three staff members at the Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville. The three students who died were all 9 years old.
The assailant was later identified as a former student at the school who the authorities said fired 152 rounds while on the campus, beginning with shots fired through the doors to the school. The attack had been planned for months, the police said.
Oct. 27, 2018
A Pittsburgh Synagogue
A man shouting antisemitic slurs opened fire at the Tree of Life Congregation, a synagogue in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, killing 11 congregants and wounding four police officers and two others.
The assailant was armed with an AR-15 style assault rifle and at least three handguns. The shooting was one of the deadliest attacks targeting Jewish people in the United States.
Nov. 5, 2017
A Church in Rural Texas
A gunman, wearing black clothing and a ballistic vest, killed 26 people with a military-style rifle at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a small town east of San Antonio. The youngest victim was 5 years old, and the oldest was 72. At least 20 others were wounded.
It is the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history.
June 17, 2015
A Black Church in South Carolina
In an outburst of extremist violence that shocked the nation, an unrepentant white supremacist opened fire inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, killing nine people.
Among the dead, who ranged in age from 26 to 87, was the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, the pastor of the church, who was also a prominent state senator.
Aug. 5, 2012
A Sikh Temple Near Milwaukee
A man armed with a semiautomatic handgun killed six people and wounded three others at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, Wis., a suburb south of Milwaukee. One of the wounded victims, a prominent priest at the temple, was paralyzed in the attack and died in 2020.
The gunman had ties to the white supremacist movement, the authorities said.
Investigators have identified the attacker as Robin Westman, 23, who is believed to be a former student at the school, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. The suspect’s mother is a retired employee of the school, the official said.
President Trump has signed a proclamation lowering the flags to half-staff after the shooting in Minneapolis.
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Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said one of her former staff members has three children who were in the church when the shooting happened. As bullets rang out, children dove to the ground seeking shelter, Klobuchar said, citing the account of one of the children. “She watched a child get shot in the stomach and another in the neck,” said Klobuchar, a Democrat. “Kids were scrambling down in the pews to protect themselves.”
Seven children between the ages of 9 and 16 were treated at Children’s Minnesota, according to the hospital. One patient has been discharged.
Jeff Ernst
Reporting from Minneapolis
At the scene of the shooting, cars with flashing lights lined the streets, but the neighborhood was otherwise quiet after students and most of the staff members left. Law enforcement officials set up a command center across the street from the church, where the agents from the F.B.I. and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as local officials, are coordinating the investigation.
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Norris Roberts said that his 12-year-old stepgrandson, who was injured in his stomach in the attack, was out of surgery and was no longer in critical condition. Roberts said he was worried about the long-term mental health impact this will have on the boy, who saw a girl get shot in the head. “It’s horrific for him to go through that, and it’s going to be a lifelong problem for him,” he said. “I can’t fathom that happened and you being stable. It’s not normal.”
Jeff Ernst
Reporting from Minneapolis
Ellie Mertens, a 25-year-old youth minister who has worked at the church for nearly four years, was seated in a pew with the children when bullets came pouring in through the window. “I was just feet away from this window,” she said in an interview. “The pew saved my life.”
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The shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis was the fourth deadly shooting in the city in just over 24 hours. In total, the string of violence has left at least five people dead and 25 injured, according to the police.
Police officials said the first shooting happened just before 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, when a man stepped out of a vehicle near the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in the Phillips neighborhood and fired about 30 rounds from a high-velocity .223 rifle at a group of people on a sidewalk. One person was killed and six others were injured. Two people have been arrested under the charge of “assisting” in the shooting, but the gunman remains at large, Chief Brian O’Hara of the Minneapolis Police chief said.
Later on Tuesday, around 8 p.m., a man in his 20s was found shot in the city’s Whittier neighborhood and subsequently died in a hospital, the police said. A second man in his 20s was brought to a different hospital with gunshot wounds roughly 20 minutes later; his injuries were believed to be related to the same shooting, the police said.
The authorities said the third shooting took place around 2 a.m. on Wednesday in downtown Minneapolis, when someone “opened fire at close range” at a group of people on a sidewalk, killing one person and injuring another.
Around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, a gunman began firing through the windows at Annunciation Catholic Church during a Mass that was being celebrated midway through the first week of classes at the church’s school. Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed and 17 other people, 14 of them children, were injured. The attacker then killed himself, the police said.
In a statement after the three earlier shootings, the Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, urged the public to come forward with information, saying that “the level of gun violence across the city within the last day is deeply unsettling.”
The latest outburst of violence comes after the Twin Cities area was rattled in June when a gunman assassinated a state lawmaker and her husband and left another lawmaker and his wife hospitalized with gunshot wounds, setting off a two-day manhunt.
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Ellie Mertens, a youth minister at the church, said she was sitting with children in the pews when bullets propelled through the windows.
“I was just feet away from this window,” Ms. Mertens, 25, said in an interview. “The pew saved my life.”
She said the shooting lasted about two minutes, and the school principal instructed everyone to get down.
“There was a hole and the bullets come in, ricocheting off of stuff,” she said. “Kids were shot. It was horrifying.”
Patty Brown, 64, of McCook, Neb., said her daughter Kristi Forte was dropping off her 5-year-old son at a program at the school when the shooting occurred.
“My daughter was pretty upset,” she said, detailing how Ms. Forte told her that the gym “was full of crying parents and teachers.”
Ms. Brown said her daughter told her that she saw dozens of ambulances before she was directed to leave.
“She goes, ‘Mom, I’m just sick for these other people,’” Ms. Brown said. “She said she had her child, but others didn’t.”
Inside the Hennepin County Medical Center emergency room, where multiple victims were taken, Za’khia Jones, 29, was with her fiancée when she saw children who appeared to be bloody being rushed in.
“One kid came in and they had rushed her into a room and she was just screaming she didn’t want to die,” Ms. Jones said during an interview on Wednesday. “It was chaos back there in the E.R.”
Ms. Jones said hospital staff members were moving patients out of rooms and into hallways to make room for the victims of the shooting, describing their arrival as “back to back.”
“My heart was so heavy,” she said. “It was just a very sad situation.”
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The Catholic church and school targeted in a shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday was founded more than a century ago, and an all-school Mass during the first week of classes was an annual tradition.
Students from prekindergarten to eighth grade had started the new year on Monday at the facility, Annunciation Catholic School, and dozens of children and staff members were inside the Mass being celebrated at the church next door on Wednesday, the police said.
The parish celebrated its first Mass in 1922, and its school opened a year later with 72 students, according to the church’s history on its website. After World War II, the church’s parish grew significantly, and in 1962, the first mass was offered in a new worship space.
In 2013, a 66-year-old church in the area merged with Annunciation as part of a reorganization plan by the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. That parish, from the Visitation Church, had more than 200 families that have contributed to further growth of Annunciation.
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