On the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 27, an armed man opened fire into Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. AP News reported two children were killed and 18 people were injured–15 of them were kids. The wounded victims of the shooting ranged from ages 6 to 15. Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, were the two victims of 23-year-old Robin Westman, who shot more than 100 rifle rounds through the church windows before dying by suicide.
Westman was a former Annunciation Catholic School student, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. Westman’s mother worked for the church before retiring in 2021. The alleged shooter released two videos on Youtube before the attack, showing weapons and ammunition with phrases “Kill Donald Trump” and “Where is your God?” before apologizing. The second video shows Westman stabbing a drawing of Annunciation with a long knife. Neither video showed the face of the person speaking, AP News stated.
The 200 students had been celebrating Mass during their first week of school before Westman approached the school before 8:30 a.m., O’Hara said at a news conference. Later that morning, Westman’s body was found behind Annunciation.
The shooting at Annunciation Church is the latest attack at a U.S. school or college over the past 25 years–back to the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.
O’Hara stated investigators are not sure what motivated the attack, although they suspect the shooter was “fascinated” with other mass shooters. Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said Westman had an “obsession” with the idea of murdering children.
Witnesses of the mass shooting described the scene of children emerging from the church covered in blood as “shock inducing.” A neighbor who spoke to a Wall Street Journal reporter recalled how he believed the loud noise couldn’t be gunshots because “there was so much of it.” When he ran to the church and saw three magazine cartridges on the ground, it dawned on him what was happening. A nanny who works nearby told NBC that while she was relieved to see some of the children leave unharmed, the looks of their faces left her disturbed.
The parents of students share similar mixed feelings. One parent shared that while they are thankful their children weren’t hurt in the incident, they are “incredibly disheartened that [shootings] are a thing in any school.” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz offered reporters a similar sentiment, saying the situation was “all too common–not just in Minnesota, but across the country.”
