MINNEAPOLIS — A shooter opened fire yesterday on schoolchildren attending a church service in Minneapolis, killing two pupils and wounding 17 people in the latest violent tragedy to jolt the US.
City police chief Brian O’Hara told a media briefing that the attacker sprayed bullets into the Annunciation Church as dozens of students attended a Mass marking their first week back to school.
The church sits next to an affiliated Catholic school in southern Minneapolis, the largest city in the Midwestern state of Minnesota.
“Two young children, ages eight and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews,” O’Hara said, adding that 17 people were injured, including 14 children. Two were in critical condition, he said.
The gunman fired a rifle, shotgun and pistol before dying by suicide in the parking lot, according to O’Hara.
He said the shooter was 23, did not have an extensive criminal history and was believed to have acted alone.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel later identified the shooter as “Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman.”
Patel posted on X that the FBI was investigating the shooting as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.”
Videos reportedly posted online by Westman showed a multi-page manifesto, and names and drawings of firearms.
The attack drew condemnation and expressions of grief from many including President Donald Trump, who directed that US flags at the White House be lowered to half-staff.
Pope Leo XIV — the first American to head the Catholic Church — said he was “profoundly saddened” by the tragedy.
Two adults and nine children, aged six to 14, were being treated at the Hennepin County Medical Center, doctors said, with at least four people requiring immediate surgery.
“Minnesota is heartbroken,” Governor Tim Walz wrote 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 said, adding: “Hug your kids close.”
Video footage from outside a police cordon showed panicked parents hurrying away with their young children dressed in a school uniform of green polo shirts.
