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A shooter opened fire Wednesday morning during Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school, killing two children and injuring 17 other people before killing himself, officials said.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooter — armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol — approached the side of the church and shot through the windows toward the children sitting in the pews during Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School.
The school was evacuated, and students’ families were later directed to a “reunification zone” at the school. President Donald Trump and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in separate social media posts that they had been briefed on the shooting.
Here’s what we know so far:
- The victims: Two children ages 8 and 10 were killed where they sat in the pews. Seventeen other people were injured, 14 of them children. Two of those children are in critical condition.
- The shooter: Officials did not immediately release his name, but said he was in his early 20s and was a “coward” who fired dozens of rounds through the church windows on the side of the building before killing himself in the parking lot. The police chief did not say whether the shooter had any known connection to the school.
- The school: Founded in 1923, Annunciation Catholic School had 391 students enrolled for the 2023-24 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The school goes from pre-K to eighth grade.
So far in 2025, more than 140 shootings have been reported in elementary and secondary schools alone, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database.
The first day of classes in at least six colleges, from the University of Southern California to the University of New Hampshire, was disrupted by hoax or swatting calls reporting active shooters, setting off panic on some campuses.
The United States Surgeon General declared gun violence a public health epidemic last year, and said then the firearm mortality rate among youths in the U.S. is 11 times higher than in France, 36 times higher than in Germany, and 121 times higher than in Japan.
Minneapolis itself saw a decline in gun violence in early 202,5, though.
Shootings dropped to their lowest level in five years with 49 shootings in the first three months this year, compared with 70 during the same period of 2024, according to police data.
A trans-identifying gunman who attacked a Catholic school on Wednesday railed against Jews in multiple antisemitic journal entries.
The gunman, identified by authorities as 23-year-old “Robin Westman,” made numerous disturbing videos, journal entries, drawings, and other materials before carrying out the attack that killed two young children on Wednesday.
In part of his writings, Westman, who previously went by the name Robert before identifying as a woman, lashed out at Jews, according to The New York Post, which published translations of some of Westman’s entries that were written using the Cyrillic alphabet.
“If I were to carry out a racially motivated attack, it would be most likely against filthy Zionist jews,” Westman wrote.
“I hate those entitled, penny-sniffing k***s,” he wrote elsewhere, using an antisemitic slur.
Westman also wrote several antisemitic and hateful messages on his firearm and magazines, including phrases like “6 million wasn’t enough,” “Israel must fall, release the files,” and “Destroy HIAS,” which refers to a Jewish aid organization.
Westman attacked Annunciation Catholic School’s church in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning as students attended mass, according to authorities. The gunman killed two students, ages 8 and 10, and wounded 17 others. Westman later turned his gun on himself, police said.
Westman’s weapons carried numerous other messages, such as “Where is your God?” “For the children,” “Kill Donald Trump,” and “Why so Queerious?”
FBI Director Kash Patel said on Wednesday that the bureau is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism, which the bureau defines as “violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.”
Patel also said the FBI is investigating the attack as a “hate crime targeting Catholics.” The bureau defines a hate crime as “a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”
Westman’s mother reportedly had worked at the school and church that Westman targeted, although it is unclear what position she held. The church in 2021 celebrated Westman’s mother’s fifth anniversary working for the parish.
Hundreds gathered in the Twin Cities on Wednesday night to mourn a mass shooting that left two children dead and 17 people injured. The shooter attacked while the students were in a morning Mass, the first of the school year, at Annunciation Church in south Minneapolis.
The suspected shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene, according to police.
Mayor Jacob Frey decried the “horrific violence in south Minneapolis,” which prompted a huge law enforcement response surrounding the area.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey lashed out at those who called for “thoughts and prayers” after Wednesday morning’s tragic shooting, complaining that it wasn’t enough and suggesting that people offering prayers for those impacted were unwilling to work toward concrete solutions.
Frey, a Democrat, spoke at a press conference on Wednesday as details of the horrific event were still being made public. At least two children were killed and nearly 20 were injured at Annunciation Catholic School.
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“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now, these kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school, they were in a church,” Frey said. “These are kids who should be learning with their friends. They should be playing on the playground. They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence.”
The implication, of course, was that something should be done about the guns — but as Emily Jashinsky pointed out, many who are not in favor of more gun control have proposed solutions to protect schools. Democrats like Frey, who typically favor gun control, have not been interested in those solutions.
“Almost no one ever ‘just’ says the reaction should be about thoughts and prayers — even the conservative Christians with whom Frey disagrees on gun control believe in policy solutions of their own. (Arming teachers, tighter security, etc.) He just doesn’t like those solutions, which is fine,” she posted.
“But it’s really time to retire this cheap hit on people of faith, especially in cases where they’re actually the direct targets of an attack,” she added. “Those little kids don’t believe the prayers they were saying today shield them from earthly tragedy or excuse them from doing good works. Frey can make his point about guns just as well without this tired jab.”