Attacker barricades doors, shoots children through windows of Minneapolis Catholic church

Just days into the new school year, the education and faith-based sectors were hit by a mass shooting today at a Catholic parish in Minneapolis.

Annunciation Catholic School, which has students from preschool through eighth grade, was holding a morning Mass to mark the beginning of the new school year when a shooter approached the outside of the building just before 8:30 a.m. and fired through church windows toward worshippers, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters at a press conference. Two doors had been barricaded from the outside with planks.

Two children ages 8 and 10 were killed “where they sat in the pews” in the attack, O’Hara said. Seventeen others were injured; 14 of those are children and at least two were in critical condition. The three wounded adults were parishioners in their 80s.

“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping,” O’Hara said.

The shooter, who is believed to have acted alone, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was identified as Robin Westman, 23, a 2017 graduate from the school. O’Hara said he does not have extensive known criminal history yet investigators are probing materials left behind — including the vehicle believed to belong to the shooter that was located in the parking lot, and a “manifesto” ascribed to the Westman that was posted on YouTube. Video also showed slurs written in white on guns.

The shooter brought a rifle, shotgun and pistol to the scene, and is believed to have fired all three. The chief said there were no explosives or IEDs found, but there was one smoke bomb. While the scene was still being processed, O’Hara said “dozens of rounds” were fired. Westman may have breached the church at some point, he noted, yet investigators had not located any casings inside.

“We will stand together to protect our children, our schools and our houses of worship,” O’Hara said.

The Faith-Based Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (FB-ISAO) issued a security advisory on March 26, marking two years since the shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, in which three children and three adults were killed.

The advisory noted that the Nashville shooter used a side door instead of entering through the school’s front door, brought multiple weapons to the scene and reportedly researched and “considered the actions of other mass murderers.”

“While all of the exterior doors at the Covenant School were locked, the threat actor entered the building by shooting through two sets of glass doors in a side vestibule by shooting through the glass,” the advisory noted. “Reinforcing glass doors and windows with blast / impact resistant security film would have slowed down, impeded, or thwarted entry into the facility.”

The advisory highlighted apparent surveillance conducted by the Nashville shooter leading up to the attack, noting that people may have seen that individual in advance or video may have captured images of an associated vehicle.

At today’s shooting scene, an emotional city leader emphasized that children should be able to go to school or church without facing violence.

“Children are dead — there are families that have a deceased child,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told reporters today. “You cannot put into words the gravity, the tragedy or the absolute pain of this situation.”

“These kids were literally praying,” Frey said, adding that “this kind of act of evil should never happen and it happens far too often.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told CNN that the daughter of one of her former employees “literally watched her friends — some of her best friends — be shot, one in the neck, one in the stomach” and had to tell her friend’s father about the shooting.

“I think this image of this gunman shooting through these windows, picking off these kids while they’re praying, is something that is going to be with people for a long time,” Klobuchar said.

This story was updated at 7 p.m. EST with additional details on the shooter