By Steve Karnowski and Mark Vancleave
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — 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 okay,” 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.
“I don’t know where He is,” Simpson said.
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 and contained “some disturbing writings.”
“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.
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, Alexandra, said she was an alumna of the kindergarten-to-eighth-grade school, and it made her sick to her stomach to think she might know some of those who were injured.
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 as other emergency responders arrived.
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.
Amid a heavy uniformed law enforcement presence later Wednesday morning, children in dark green uniforms trickled out of the school with adults, giving lingering hugs and wiping away tears.
Aubrey Pannhoff, a 16-year-old student at a different Catholic school, rushed to Annunciation after her own school’s lockdown and prayer service, and she said she was asking God: “Why?”
“It’s little kids,” she said through tears. “It’s just really hard for me to take in.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz lamented that children just starting the school year “were met with evil and horror and death.” He and President Donald Trump ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff on state and federal buildings, respectively, and the White House said the two men spoke. The governor was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in last year’s election against Trump’s running mate, now Vice President JD Vance, a Republican.
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.
Atlanta Archbishop Gregory Hartmeyer, who chairs the board of the National Catholic Education Association, said in a statement that reasonable firearms legislation must be passed.
“The murder of children worshipping 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 (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-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 non-fatal shootings — were down 8%.
This article, originally published at 11:13 a.m. ET, has been updated with information related to the deadly shooting.
___
Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York; Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa; Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Will Weissert and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington; Bruce Schreiner in Shelbyville, Kentucky; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Nicole Winfield in Vatican City; and Steve Peoples in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
