Two children, aged 8 and 10, were k!lled and 17 people were injured when a gunman fired through the windows of a Minneapolis Catholic church at people celebrating Mass, police said
The shooting occurred when Annunciation Church, which also houses a school, was filled with students. Of the 17 people injured, 14 are children and seven of those shot are in critical condition.
Authorities said the gunman, identified as a 20-year-old male with no “significant criminal history”, also d!ed from a self-inflicted gunshot.
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters.
“The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” he said.
The Mass was in celebration of the first week of school, O’Hara said.
Police began receiving calls of a shooting just before 08:00 local time (14:00BST).
Officials are still investigating if the gunman shot inside the building or if all shots came from outside the church, they said, noting that no casings from bullets had been found inside the church.
O’Hara said police did not find any explosives or improvised devices either, but did find smoke bombs. The gunman used three firearms – a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, he said.
“There are no words that can capture the horror,” Mayor Jacob Frey said at a press conference.
Minneapolis-area hospital received 11 patients, nine of whom were children, according to Thomas Wyatt, Chair of Emergency Healthcare at Hennepin Healthcare. The patients range in age from six to 14.
The school, located in southern Minneapolis, is home to students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that he was briefed on the “tragic shooting” and that the White House would continue to monitor the situation.
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