An 8-year-old and a 10-year-old were killed in a shooting today during Mass marking the first week of class at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, where parents rushed to the scene, anxiously hoping to be reunited with their children — now an all-too-familiar scene in America.
Seventeen other people were injured, officials said. Fourteen of them are children.
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said, calling the shooting “absolutely incomprehensible.”
Law enforcement officials in the past hour have held news conference, as has the chair of emergency medicine at a Level 1 trauma center in the area.
Here’s what you should know:
- The shooter is dead: The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, O’Hara said at the news conference. The shooter, who was in his early 20s but has not been publicly identified, was clad in black and armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. Police are still investigating a possible motive.
- Gunman opened fire during Mass: The shooter approached the outside of the building, O’Hara said, and fired at “children sitting in the pews at the Mass through the windows.” The shooter had attempted to block doors with “like a 2-by-4,” O’Hara said.
- Injured patients are as young as 6: Ten patients were being treated by Hennepin Healthcare, it said in a news release, eight of whom are children. The patients range in age from 6 to 14, according to Dr. Thomas Wyatt, the chair of emergency medicine. Wyatt had earlier said Hennepin Healthcare received 11 patients.
- Mayor rejects “thoughts and prayers”: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, spoke about the United States’ scourge of gun violence: “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying … They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence, and their parents should have the same kind of assurance.”