Minneapolis (AP) – A shooter opened the fire with a rifle on Wednesday through the windows of a Catholic church in Minneapolis and hit some of the almost 200 children who celebrated in the first week of school. He killed two and wounded 17 people in a act of violence that the chief of police called “absolutely incomprehensible”.
With a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, the 23-year-old Robin Westman approached the church side and shot dozens of rounds through the windows to the children who were sitting in the preaching during the trade fair during the fair during the fair, said police chief of Minneapolis, Brian O’Hara, at news conferences. He said the shooter died through suicide.
The children died 8 and 10. Fourteen other children and three local parishioners were wounded, but expected to survive, the boss said.
On Wednesday evening, hundreds prayed, the tears wiped and kept during a packed vigil in a gym in a nearby school, in which governor Tim Walz and US senator Amy Klobuchar took part with Catholic clergymen.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda spoke about the inscription on the front of the proclamation, which is: “House of God and the Gate of Heaven”.
“How is it that such a terrible tragedy could take place in a place that is the house of God and the goal of heaven?” he asked. (*17*)
The fifth grader Weston Halsne told reporters that he was ducking for the pews and covered his head, which was shielded by a friend who was lying on him. His friend was met, he said.
“I was great afraid of him, but I think he’s fine now,” said the 10-year-old and added that he prayed for the other hospital children and adults.
Halsne’s grandfather, Michael Simpson, said the violence during the fair on the third day of school asked him if God overlooked.
“I don’t know where it is,” said Simpson.
The police examined the motive for the shootout
Kash Patel, director of FBI, said on X that the shootout was examined as an act of domestic terrorism and as a hate crime for Catholics.
O’Hara said the police had not yet found a relationship between the shooter and the church or set a motive for bloodshed. However, the boss said that the investigators examined a social media contribution that seemed to show the shooter on site.
(*2*) said O’Hara, who gave the age of the wounded youthful people as 6 to 15 years ancient.
On Wednesday, the alleged shooter published at least two videos on a YouTube channel with the title Robin W before the channel was removed from the site administrators.
In one, the alleged shooter shows a cache with weapons and ammunition, some with phrases like “kill Donald Trump” and “Where is your god?”? written on them.
A second video shows the alleged shooter, which points to two outer windows in an apparently drawing of the church and then stabbed it with a long knife. It was unclear when this video was uploaded to the channel.
Westman’s uncle, the former legislature of the state of Kentucky, Bob Heleringer, said that he did not know the accused shooters well and was confused by the “unspeakable tragedy”.
The chief of police said Westman did not have an extensive known crime history and is said to have acted alone.
Federal civil servants described Westman as transgender, and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, condemned hatred against “our transgender community”. Westman’s gender identity was not clear. In 2020, a judge approved a Petition signed by Westman’s mother and asked for a name change from Robert to Robin. The petent identifies “as a woman and wants her name to reflect this identification”.
Bill Bienemann, who lives a few blocks of houses and has visited the fair in the Annunciation Church for a long time, said he had heard over 50 shots for up to four minutes.
“I was shocked. I said,” There is no way to be shots, “he said.
Police chief says that civil servants saved children who have hidden themselves
The chief of police said that the officials had immediately answered reports on the shootout, entered the church, provided first aid and saved some of the children who were hiding throughout the building.
Frey and Annunciation’s headmaster said that teachers and children also answered heroically.
“Children were ducking. Adults protected children. Older children protected younger children,” said headmaster Matt Deboer.
Danielle Gunter, the mother of a boy of eighth grade who was shot, said in a statement that her son had told her a police officer in Minneapolis who really helped him by giving lend a hand and a hug before her son came into an ambulance.
In the middle of a ponderous uniformed law enforcement agency later on Wednesday morning children dripped out of school in obscure green uniforms with adults, the continuing hugs and the wipe of tears.
Vincent Francoual said that his 11-year-old daughter Chloe survived the shootout by driving down the stairs to hide in a room with a table pressed against the door. But he is still not sure how she fled because she has difficulty communicating clearly over the traumatizing scene.
“She told us today that she thought she would die,” he said.
Governor Walz complained that children who just started the school year had “met with soils, horror and death. He and President Donald Trump indicated that the flags on state or federal buildings were reduced to a half -stelsle. Trump’s running colleagues, now Vice President JD Vance, a Republican.
Pope Leo XIV sent a telegram of condolences from the Vatican. The Leo, born in Chicago, the first American Pope in history, said he prayed for relatives of the dead.
News about the shootout through a national democratic official of the democratic officials near Minneapolis. The US MP Ilhan Omar, a democrat who represents the area around the school, visited the scene.
Atlanta ore bishop Gregory Hartmeyer, chairman of the board of the National Catholic Education Association, said in a statement that adequate legislation for firearms had to be passed.
“The murder of children who are worshiped in the fair is unspeakable,” said Hartmeyer. “We have to take measures to protect all children and families from violence.”
A number of fatal shootings in Minneapolis
Monday was the first day of the school year in the proclamation, a 102-year school in a leafy living and commercial area, about 8 kilometers south of downtown Minneapolis.
Karin Cebulla, who said she had worked as a learning specialist at Annuciation and sent her two now college daughters there, described the school as an accepting, caring community.
“Everyone felt safe here, and I just pray that it is still a place where people feel safe,” she said.
The shooter was the latest in a number of fatal shootings in Minnesota’s most populous city in less than 24 hours. One person was killed and six others were injured on Tuesday afternoon at a shootout. Hours later, two people died of two other shootings in the city.
O’Hara, the chief of police, said that the announcement shootings do not seem to be associated with other recent violence.
In addition to many immense US cities, violent crime in Minneapolis has decreased since Covid-19 pandemic, based on data from AH Datalytics and its real-time criminal index, which is pursuing crimes across the country based on law enforcement data.
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Associated press authors Jennifer Peltz in New York; Hannah Fingerhut in the Moines, Iowa; Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Will Weissert and Alanna Durkin Reicher in Washington; Bruce Schreiner in Shelbyville, Kentucky; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Nicole Winfield in the Vatican City; Steve Peoples in Minneapolis; And Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
