Two children have been killed after a gunman opened fire on Catholic church in Minneapolis as the parish school was holding its start-of-year mass.
The children, aged eight and 10, were murdered as they were sat in pews during the Wednesday morning service at Annunciation Catholic Church.
The shooter, dressed in all black and armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, ‘pepper-sprayed’ bullets through the church’s stained glass windows.
Seventeen people, including 14 children, were injured during the ‘deliberate act of violence’, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed.
O’Hara said the ‘coward who fired these shots ultimately took his own life in the rear of the church’.
The shooter, in his early 20s, fired dozens of rounds from outside the church and shot from all three weapons.
He had no known criminal history and his motive remains under investigation.
The suspect’s vehicle, which he parked inside the church lot, is being searched by authorities. A smoke bomb ‘firework’ found on premises, O’Hara added.
The gunman opened fire into the windows Annunciation Catholic Church on 54th Street around 8:15am local time.
Police say no casings found inside the church, meaning ‘most – if not all – shooting happened outside building’.
Students and staff at Annunciation Catholic School, where classes just started on Monday, were attending mass at the time of the shooting.
‘Children are dead, you cannot put into words the gravity, tragedy or absolute pain of this moment,’ Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said during a press conference.
There are no words that capture the horror of this unspeakable act.’
A heartbroken parent who attended the mass told The Star Tribune he fired ’50 to 100 shots’ as students and staff were sat in pews and ‘killed two kids’.
‘This is terrible,’ the parent added. ‘This is evil. I don’t know how you defend against this.’
One little boy who walked away from the Annunciation Church shooting told his father, ‘I don’t feel safe,’ according to The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Medics on emergency dispatch audio obtained by the outlet reported that a 10-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the head was being transported.
Additionally the audio said, ‘We have two patients with gunshot wounds to their head in front [of the church]. … we have a critical [victim] in the rear of the church.’
Dozens of children were evacuated from the church, with one nearby resident claiming many were crying and covered in blood as they were shuffled out.
Another local told the Star Tribune that he held hands with three children who suffered gunshot wounds, including one who was shot in the neck.
Bill Bienemann, who lives a couple of blocks away and has long attended Mass at Annunciation Church, said he heard dozens of shots ring out for 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.’
Children were escorted out of the school and church by their parents, who have been permitted to enter the campus in groups of about a dozen at a time.
A reunification zone has been set up near the church so that families can be reconnected.
Minnesota state troopers, local police, FBI agents, SWAT officers, paramedics and a large number of ambulances currently remain on the scene.
The City of Minneapolis said there is no active threat to the community and the shooter at Annunciation Church has been contained.
‘There is an active police situation at Annunciation Church, 509 W. 54th St. There is no active threat to the community at this time. The shooter is contained,’ the city said on X.
‘Stay away from the area to allow emergency personnel to help victims – W. 54th Street between Lyndale and Nicollet Ave.’
Sen. Amy Klobuchar told MSNBC that one of her longtime employees had three children in the school during the shooting.
She said the the woman’s daughter, who is in the seventh grade, watched her friends be shot.
‘These kids are doing an all-school Mass and had to watch several of her friends get shot — one in the back, one in the neck,’ Klobuchar said.
‘And they all got down under the pews and she — her daughter, of course, was not shot — but her daughter ended up being the one to tell one of the dads of one of the other kids that his daughter had been shot.’
As police, FBI and other federal agents and ambulances converged on the school, President Donald Trump said he has been ‘fully briefed on the tragic shooting’ and that the White House will ‘continue to monitor this terrible situation’.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem branded the situation as ‘horrific’ and says her department is actively in communication with ‘interagency partners’.
‘I am praying for the victims of this heinous attack and their families,’ she added.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are also monitoring the situation.
‘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 statement.
Frey echoed: ‘I’m monitoring reports of horrific violence in South Minneapolis. I’m in touch with Chief O’Hara and our emergency response team has been activated.
‘We will share more information as soon as we can. Please give our officers the space they need to respond to the situation.’
Annunciation Catholic Church and its connected grade school are located in south Minneapolis.
Dating to 1923, the prekindergarten through eighth grade school held an all-school Mass at 8:15am Wednesday morning.
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.
But Wednesday students trickled out of the school with adults, giving lingering hugs and wiping away tears.
The horrific attack at Annunciation Church is the latest in a series of fatal shootings in Minneapolis in less than 24 hours.
One person was killed and six others were hurt in a shooting Tuesday afternoon outside a Catholic high school.
Police said the suspect, who escaped in a vehicle and does not appear to have been arrested since, fired around 30 rounds from a high-velocity .223 rifle.
Authorities have not confirmed any connection between the shootings.
Hours later, two people died in two other shootings in the city.
Wednesday’s school shooting also followed a spate of hoax calls about purported shootings on at least a dozen college campuses.
The bogus warnings, sometimes featuring gunshot sounds in the background, prompted universities to issue texts to ‘run, hide, fight’ and frightened students around the nation as the school year begins.
