Two children aged eight and 10 have been killed and 17 people injured when a gunman opened fire on schoolchildren attending Mass at a Catholic school in the United States, authorities say.
The police chief of Minneapolis, Minnesota, said that of the people injured in the Wednesday morning attack, 14 are children and two were in critical condition. All the children being treated are expected to survive their injuries.
According to Aljazeera, local authorities have not yet discerned a motive for the attack and said the shooter – armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol – took his own life and appears to have acted alone. The FBI said that it is probing the attack as a potential act of terrorism.
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“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a news conference. “The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”
Police said the assailant was in his 20s and did not appear to have had an extensive criminal history. Dozens of rounds were fired during the attack, during which the gunman, dressed in black clothing, stood outside the church and fired in through the windows as schoolchildren were seated in the pews.
A fifth grader named Weston Halsne told CBS News that his friend was hit by a bullet while trying to protect him.
“The shots were like, right next to me,” Halsne said. “I think I got like gunpowder on my neck.”
Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the US, called the shooting a “terrible tragedy” and said he was praying for the victims during an “extremely difficult time”.
While local police have not yet put forward evidence pointing to a specific motive, they said they were investigating videos posted online by the shooter, who was identified as a 23-year-old resident named Robin Westman. Court records indicate that Westman’s name was changed from Robert Westman in 2020 because they identified as female.
Kash Patel, the Trump-appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has said that the agency is probing the attack as a possible hate crime targeting Catholics.
“I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said in a social media post.
“I was shocked. I said, ‘There’s no way that could be gunfire,’” Bill Bienemann, who lives nearby and has long attended Mass at Annunciation Church, where the shooting took place, told The Associated Press news agency.
“There was so much of it. It was sporadic.”
US President Donald Trump described it as a “terrible situation”.
“I have been fully briefed on the tragic shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.
“The FBI quickly responded, and they are on the scene. The White House will continue to monitor this terrible situation. Please join me in praying for everyone involved!”
