A shooter killed two children and injured 17 others when he opened fire during Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school on Aug. 27, officials said.
The shooter, Robert “Robin” Westman, who law enforcement said is a man in his early 20s, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound moments later. Fourteen of the 17 people injured were children, police said, two of whom are in critical condition.
Here is what we know so far.
Shooter Opened Fire in the Middle of Mass
The shooting occurred during Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, two days after the first day of class of the new school year.
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping,“ Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a news conference. ”The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”
Authorities evacuated the school, and students’ families were directed to a “reunification zone.”
“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at the news conference with O’Hara. “These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called the shooting a “horrific act of violence” in a post on X.
“From the officers responding, to the clergy and teachers providing comfort, to the hospital staff saving lives, we will get through this together,” he wrote in another post.
Victims Mostly Children
Officials said the two children killed were 8 and 10 and were fatally shot while in the church pews celebrating a Mass during the first week of school. It is not clear how many people were present in the church when the shooting occurred, and authorities have not released the identities of the victims.
Police have heard estimates on the exact number of people who were in the church at the time, but will release a more definitive number when it’s determined, O’Hara said.
Hennepin Healthcare’s chair of emergency medicine, Thomas Wyatt, said the hospital treated 10 patients after the shooting, including eight children ages 6 through 14 and two adults.
Seven children ages 9 through 16 were also admitted to Children’s Minnesota, a trauma center dedicated to pediatric care, the facility said in a statement.
O’Hara said all of the wounded are expected to survive from their “range of injuries,” and that the children have been reunited with their families.
Shooter Identified
The shooter was Robert “Robin” Westman, according to FBI Director Kash Patel. Westman was armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol and approached the side of the church before shooting through the windows toward the children inside, O’Hara said.
Authorities believe that Westman fired all or most of the shots from outside the church before killing himself in the parking lot.
Westman identified as transgender, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X.
He allegedly wrote the phrases “For the Children,” “Where is your God?”, and “Kill Donald Trump” on a rifle magazine, Noem said.
Officials did not say whether Westman had any known connections to the school. Potential motives are still under investigation, but officials said he does not have an extensive known criminal history and likely acted alone.
Patel said the FBI is investigating the shooting as an “act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.”
O’Hara said Minneapolis police do not yet have a “motive or anything to suggest that,” but that it is working with its federal partners and reviewing “any possibilities from wherever the evidence will lead us from what we recover.”
Authorities previously said Westman was in his early 20s. Noem later said he was 23.
O’Hara said authorities located a smoke bomb, or a firework that would release smoke, but had not found any explosives.
They also found a video manifesto that had been timed to upload to YouTube following the shooting and are reviewing it for potential motives, O’Hara said.
Catholic School, Grades Pre-K to 8th
Founded in 1923, Annunciation Catholic School had 391 students enrolled for the 2023 to 2024 school year and has a student-to-teacher ratio of roughly 14 to one, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. With grades pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, each grade level has two classes and roughly 20 students per class.
The school is in Minneapolis’s tree-lined Windom neighborhood, about five miles south of downtown. Social media photos from the first day of school on Aug. 25 show students in green uniforms smiling, greeting one another at bicycle racks, and sitting together.
Annunciation Catholic School’s website states that teachers “focus on Christian values and civic-mindedness.”
Investigation Underway
In addition to investigating the shooting as a targeted act of domestic terrorism and an anti-Catholic hate crime, Patel said the FBI will provide updates to the public as its investigation proceeds. Law enforcement said previously it was investigating whether Westman had any known connections to the school.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) said it had completed a tracing of the firearms—the rifle, shotgun, and pistol—found at the school.
“ATF completed the urgent traces of the recovered firearms and has provided that information to all investigative partners involved in the shooting at Annunciation Church this morning,” the agency’s St. Paul, Minnesota, office wrote in a post on X. “This information is for investigative partners only and will not be released to the public.”
O’Hara said investigators are analyzing additional firearms found at three residential locations related to Westman.
The City of Minneapolis wrote on X that “there is no active threat to the community at this time” but warned residents to stay away from the area while emergency personnel help victims.
President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting. He signed a proclamation ordering all flags at federal buildings to be flown at half-staff “as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence,” the White House wrote on X.
Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X, “Our federal agents are on the scene of the horrific shooting at the Annunciation Catholic school in Minneapolis, Minnesota.”
Shooting at Another Catholic School
The shooting on Aug. 27 followed one that occurred the previous afternoon at nearby Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Minneapolis, in what officials believe was a targeted shooting. The shooter killed one person and injured six others among a group of adults who were hanging out near the school, the police chief said on Aug. 26.
At least one of the adults was targeted, and officials did not mention if anyone from the school was involved in the shooting.
Annunciation Catholic School is roughly four miles south of Cristo Rey. Authorities do not believe that the two incidents are connected.
O’Hara told reporters that law enforcement had arrested two suspects in relation to that shooting.
“We have not gotten the shooter yet, but we believe we have two people under arrest that were present with the shooter when that happened, and we’re making significant progress,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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