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A shooter at a Minneapolis Catholic school kills 2 children, injures 17 others
Parents comfort their children after a shooting at Annunciation Church that killed two children and injured 17 others on Wednesday morning in Minneapolis. The suspected shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene, according to police. The shooter attacked while the students were in the first Mass of the school year. (Alex Kormann / Star Tribune via Getty Images)
A shooter opened fire with a rifle Wednesday through the windows of a Catholic church in Minneapolis and struck children celebrating Mass during the first week of school, killing two and wounding 17 people in an act of violence the police chief called “absolutely incomprehensible.”
Armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, 23-year-old Robin Westman approached the side of the church and shot dozens of rounds through the windows toward the children sitting in the pews during Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School just before 8:30 a.m., Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at news conferences. He said the shooter then died by suicide.
The children who died were 8 and 10. Fourteen other kids and three octogenarian parishioners were wounded but expected to survive, the chief said.
Fifth-grader Weston Halsne told reporters he ducked for the pews, covering his head, shielded by a friend who was lying on top of him. His friend was hit, he said.
“I was super scared for him, but I think now he’s OK,” the 10-year-old said, adding that he was praying for the other hospitalized children and adults
Halsne’s grandfather, Michael Simpson, said the violence during Mass on the third day of school left him wondering whether God was watching over.
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Police investigate motive for the shooting
FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the shooting is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.
O’Hara said police hadn’t yet found any relationship between the shooter and the church, nor determined a motive for the bloodshed. The chief said, however, that investigators were examining a social media post that appeared to show the shooter at the scene.
“The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” said O’Hara, who gave the wounded youngsters’ ages as 6 to 15. He said a wooden plank was placed to barricade some of the side doors, and that authorities found a smoke bomb at the scene.
On a YouTube channel titled Robin W, the alleged shooter released at least two videos before the channel was taken down by site administrators Wednesday.
In one, the alleged shooter shows a cache of weapons and ammunition, some with such phrases as “kill Donald Trump” and “Where is your God?” written on them.
A second video shows the alleged shooter pointing to two outside windows in what appears to be a drawing of the church, and then stabbing it with a long knife. It was unclear when that video was uploaded to the channel.
Westman’s uncle, former Kentucky state lawmaker Bob Heleringer, said he did not know the accused shooter well. He said he last saw Westman at a family wedding a few years ago and was confounded by the violence: “It’s an unspeakable tragedy.”
The police chief said Westman did not have an extensive known criminal history and is believed to have acted alone.
Federal officials referred to Westman as transgender, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey decried hatred being directed at “our transgender community.” Westman’s gender identity wasn’t clear. In 2020, a judge approved a petition, signed by Westman’s mother, asking for a name change from Robert to Robin, saying the petitioner “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
Frey said the violence had forever changed the students’ families and the city along with them.
“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now,” Frey said at a news conference. “These kids were literally praying.”
Bill Bienemann, who lives a couple of blocks away and has long attended Mass at Annunciation Church, said he heard as many as 50 shots over as long as four minutes.
“I was shocked. I said, ‘There’s no way that could be gunfire,’” he said. Bienemann’s daughter was an alumna of the kindergarten-to-eighth-grade school.
Police chief says officers rescued children who hid
The police chief said officers immediately responded to reports of the shooting, entered the church, rendered first aid and rescued some of the children hiding throughout the building.
Frey and Annunciation’s principal said teachers and children, too, responded heroically.
“Children were ducked down. Adults were protecting children. Older children were protecting younger children,” said the principal, Matt DeBoer.
Danielle Gunter, the mother of an eighth-grade boy who was shot, in a statement said her son told her a Minneapolis police officer “really helped him” by giving aid and a hug before her son got into an ambulance.
Police chief says officers rescued children who hid
The police chief said officers immediately responded to reports of the shooting, entered the church, rendered first aid and rescued some of the children hiding throughout the building.
Frey and Annunciation’s principal said teachers and children, too, responded heroically.
“Children were ducked down. Adults were protecting children. Older children were protecting younger children,” said the principal, Matt DeBoer.
Danielle Gunter, the mother of an eighth-grade boy who was shot, in a statement said her son told her a Minneapolis police officer “really helped him” by giving aid and a hug before her son got into an ambulance.
From the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV sent a telegram of condolences. The Chicago-born Leo, history’s first American pope, said he was praying for relatives of the dead.
News of the shooting rippled through a national Democratic officials’ meeting nearby in Minneapolis. U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who represents the area around the school, visited the scene.
Atlanta Archbishop Gregory Hartmeyer, who chairs the board of the National Catholic Education Assn., said in a statement that reasonable firearms legislation must be passed.
“The murder of children worshiping at Mass is unspeakable,” Hartmeyer said. “We must take action to protect all children and families from violence.”
A string of fatal shootings in Minneapolis
Monday had been the first day of the school year at Annunciation, a 102-year-old school in a leafy residential and commercial neighborhood about 5 miles south of downtown Minneapolis.
Karin Cebulla, who said she had worked as a learning specialist at Annuciation and sent her two now-college-aged daughters there, described the school as an accepting, caring community.
“Everyone felt safe here, and I just pray that it continues to be a place where people feel safe,” she said.
The gunfire was the latest in a series of fatal shootings in Minnesota’s most populous city in less than 24 hours. One person was killed and six others were hurt in a shooting Tuesday afternoon. Hours later, two people died in two other shootings in the city.
O’Hara, the police chief, said the Annunciation shooting does not appear to be related to other recent violence.
Alongside many major U.S. cities, violent crime in Minneapolis has decreased since the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of homicides between 2020 and 2024 fell by about 7%, based on data from AH Datalytics and its Real-Time Crime Index, which tracks crimes across the country using law enforcement data.
Over the first six months of 2025, the index shows a 21% decrease in homicides over the same period of 2024, while aggravated assaults — which include nonfatal shootings — were down 8%.
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