PinnedThe suspect in the shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis visited the site within the last three months as part of the planning for the attack, which killed two children and injured more than a dozen others, a senior law enforcement official said on Thursday.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation, disclosed the visit as investigators pored over surveillance video of the attack, as well as writings and videos by the suspect, which revealed a litany of grievances and an obsession with school shooters, law enforcement officials said.“The shooter left behind hundreds of pages of writings, writings that describe the shooter’s plan, writings that describe the shooter’s mental state and, more than anything, writings that describe the shooter’s hate — pure, indiscriminate hate,” Joseph H. Thompson, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.But he added, “More than anything, the shooter wanted to kill children — defenseless children. The shooter was obsessed with the idea of killing children.”The shooting on Wednesday during an all-school Mass at the Annunciation Catholic Church in south Minneapolis killed two students, an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, in the pews as classmates and teachers scrambled for cover from a hail of bullets and flying glass. Eighteen others, including 15 children, were injured, officials said.Jesse Merkel, whose son Fletcher died in the attack, delivered remarks outside the Annunciation Catholic Church on Thursday and asked that people remember his son “for the person he was and not the act that ended his life.” He also advised other parents, “Give your kids an extra hug and kiss today.”The suspect, Robin Westman, 23, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the police said. According to court papers, when the suspect was 17, she identified as female and legally changed her name to Robin from Robert. Investigators said she was a former student at the school, where her mother once worked.Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, said on Thursday that the suspect had tried to get inside the church, but the doors were locked after the Mass began, a longstanding school practice that probably saved lives. Unable to enter, the shooter fired into the church through narrow windows.Investigators who combed the church grounds have recovered three shotgun shells, 116 rifle rounds and one live round from the shooter’s handgun, which appeared to have jammed, Chief O’Hara said. The three guns were legally purchased, he said.Chief O’Hara said that investigators have not identified a “triggering event” or a specific grievance against the church.Here’s what else to know:The suspect: Parts of the suspect’s journal, posted on YouTube, included clues that the shooting had been planned in advance, including a detailed drawing of the church’s interior. Her social media accounts also included antisemitic and racist language, threats against President Trump, transgender flags and the slogan “Defend Equality.” Officials added that the suspect had no criminal record or history of state-ordered mental health treatment.Wounded patients: Nine gunshot victims remain at Hennepin County Medical Center, hospital officials said on Thursday. Five are children in stable condition. One adult and one child are in serious condition, and one child is in critical condition. Three other children remain at Children’s Minnesota, a Minneapolis hospital with a trauma center.School-year anxiety: The attack in Minneapolis brought to life many parents’ worst nightmare, days into the new school year, and before school has even begun in some parts of the country. Though mass shootings at schools remain rare, at least 250 people were injured or killed on school grounds in each of the last three years, the highest number on record, according to a database on school shootings. Read more ›Aric Toler contributed reporting.Aug. 28, 2025, 6:53 p.m. ETWindows that were shot through were boarded up at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis.Credit...Jenn Ackerman for The New York TimesActive shooter drills have become a grim ritual for American schoolchildren. Teachers and students are taught to barricade doors, cover windows and huddle silently if a shooter is in the school.But on Wednesday, unusually, the threat came from outside.The shooter fired through the stained-glass windows of Annunciation Catholic Church, sending students and adults scrambling to hide behind pews and protect one another. The doors of the church were locked from the inside, according to church protocol, potentially saving lives by preventing the shooter from getting inside.“It’s so different than what schools prepare for,” Jillian Peterson, a criminology professor and the executive director of the Violence Prevention Project Research Center, said hours after the shooting.Usually, discussions after a mass shooting at a school quickly turn toward risk prevention techniques like metal detectors and security systems. This is different, she said.“It’s really hard to think about how you stop something in this situation,” Dr. Peterson said.Like many school shooters, the suspect studied other assailants and seemed to take inspiration from previous mass shootings. The names of several school shooters were scrawled on the weapons used during Wednesday’s attack.The assailant, armed with three weapons and an intimate knowledge of the church, barricaded at least two doors from the outside, presumably to keep people trapped inside the church, and shot for about two minutes. Two children were killed, and 18 people were injured.Investigators who combed the church grounds recovered three shotgun shells, 116 rifle rounds and one live round from the shooter’s handgun, which appeared to have jammed, said Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief.Experts who study mass shootings and school shootings say that many school shootings start outside before the assailant moves indoors. That’s what happened at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022.But it’s rare for a perpetrator to shoot into a school from the outside. Dr. Klein cited just one example, from 2007, when a 15-year-old fired into his Oregon high school with a rifle stolen from his stepfather. Ten students were wounded.On Thursday, many politicians, gun control advocates and families pleaded for what they see as the obvious solution.“This is not a big issue for us to solve, like curing cancer or AIDS, even though we attempt to do that every single day,” Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota said in a news conference. “This is something that is simple, a simple ban to make sure people who should not have access to these weapons do not get them.”Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, who has long advocated stricter gun laws, called for federal and state bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.The suspect had purchased the three guns used in the shooting legally.Aug. 28, 2025, 6:47 p.m. ETJesse Merkel, left, whose son Fletcher died in the attack, delivered remarks at a news conference outside Annunciation Catholic Church on Thursday.Credit...Jenn Ackerman for The New York TimesOutside the Annunciation Catholic Church on Thursday, the mood was one of healing. People hugged and wiped away tears. Children carried teddy bears and ate pizza. There was a therapy dog, a golden retriever named Rosie, whom people could pet. A local Trader Joe’s worker dropped off buckets of flowers.Families and neighbors had gathered outside the church in Minneapolis, where a shooter killed two children and injured 18 others the day before, to hear remarks from Jesse Merkel, who lost his son Fletcher in the shooting. Seeming to hold back tears, he asked for “not your sympathy, but your empathy, as our families grieve and try to make sense of a senseless act of violence.”“Please remember Fletcher for the person he was and not the act that ended his life,” Mr. Merkel said. “Give your kids an extra hug and kiss today. We love you, Fletcher, you’ll always be with us.”Signs of grieving, support and remembrance appeared to be everywhere: on posters, in chalk, on plywood.Flowers and notes left outside of the church.Credit...Jenn Ackerman for The New York TimesSeng Yang wrote, “You are loved” on a sign.Credit...Ann Hinga Klein for The New York TimesSeng Yang, a neighborhood nanny who said she has previously cared for some of the Annunciation children who were affected by the shooting, paused before writing a note of condolences at a sign set up with colorful markers. She wrote simply, “You are loved. Seng.”Wiping away tears, she struggled to describe her feelings, her lips trembling with emotion as she spoke. “I don’t care what you have gone through. But to hurt innocent children,” she said, trailing off.In what appeared to be part of the healing process, some parents allowed their children to explore the church’s grounds — to get in the bushes and look through the windows and peer in through the doors into the sanctuary where the attack took place.In front of the church’s front door, a memorial was set up for Fletcher with letters, drawings, teddy bears, balloons and flowers. In the center was a sign with Fletcher’s name, with the words: “I love you always and forever. Mom.”Aug. 28, 2025, 6:43 p.m. ETFather Timothy Sas, a Greek Orthodox priest in Minneapolis, said a 12-year-old member of his congregation was critically injured in the attack. The victim, Sophia Forchas, is a seventh grader who is active in Sunday school, dance and other activities, Father Sas said. He said Sophia was being treated at a hospital where her mother works as a nurse. “She has not been involved in the direct care of her daughter, medically speaking,” Father Sas said. “But of course, she is a mother. She’s very involved with her prayers and with her presence.”Aug. 28, 2025, 6:16 p.m. ETOne child remains at Children’s Minnesota, a Minneapolis hospital with a trauma center, according to hospital officials. Six patients have been treated and discharged since Wednesday morning.Aug. 28, 2025, 5:53 p.m. ETCrosses, flowers and other mementos were placed outside Annunciation Catholic Church following the shooting in Minneapolis.Credit...Abbie Parr/Associated PressWhen it is time for Wednesday Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church, students from the school next door file into the front pews and settle in with their assigned buddies from different grades. Middle schoolers might sit with first graders, fifth graders with third graders.It is a sacred, if ordinary, part of the rhythm at Annunciation in Minneapolis, where children practice for their turn to read Scripture or to be part of the choir during their grade’s week to help lead the Mass.“You feel important as a second grader, going up in front of your school and doing a reading,” said Conor O’Rourke, 23, who attended Annunciation Catholic School from kindergarten through eighth grade.That tradition was shattered this week, during the first Wednesday Mass of the school year, when a shooter fired into the service during the recitation of Psalm 139. The attack killed two students and left 18 people injured. At least one student, who was shot in the back, used his body to protect another child.“You have searched me and you know me, Lord,” the day’s psalm says in part. “For you darkness itself is not dark, and night shines as the day.”The shooting has brought a tragic spotlight to a busy urban parish that much preferred being locally famous for its Wiffle ball field and its annual SeptemberFest. And it has pushed into action a support network at the church that, one member said, had long functioned as a sort of small town within Minneapolis.A vigil at Lynnhurst Park in Minneapolis on Wednesday evening.Credit...Liam James Doyle for The New York Times“It’s a large American city, but it’s a very tight-knit community,” said Duane Passa, who has three children at the school, and who volunteers as a coach and a fantasy football league organizer for students. “I know a majority of the kids in this school by first name, as well as their parents.”Annunciation has remained lively even as other urban parishes in the area and across the country have withered, merged or closed. Recent church bulletins promote offerings like a new aluminum can recycling program, a blood drive and the upcoming Blessing of the Animals, a tradition in which families bring their pets for an outdoor blessing.The church’s stone and stained-glass facade sits alongside a busy street next to the school, with signs extolling the benefits of rain gardens and inviting parents to enroll their students. Just across the road, a Starbucks fills with schoolchildren and parents before and after classes.The congregation was made up of people living “simple, but simply profound, lives,” said Shannon Smith, a parishioner for about 20 years whose four children graduated from Annunciation Catholic School.The school draws children from families in the parish, but also from families who are part of other congregations in the neighborhood.“It’s people who are interested in moral formation and in their kids being in church,” said Andy Rowell, a professor at the evangelical Bethel Seminary whose wife is the pastor of a Baptist church a few blocks from Annunciation. “This is a sort of idyllic little part of the city.”The church’s annual SeptemberFest party, which started as a parish anniversary celebration, now draws large crowds from the neighborhood for a carnival, games, music and food. The church’s bells, which sound throughout the day, are part of the soundtrack of South Minneapolis. Annunciation even hosts indoor baseball practices in April, when Minnesota’s persistent winters make outdoor conditions unpredictable.“It’s more than a civic organization,” said Jeff Cavins, a Catholic author and podcaster who lives in the Twin Cities area, and who attended church at Annunciation as a child. “This really is family, and it’s at times like this that we come to this realization, that there’s a solidarity and a love that transcends regular living.”Several windows were covered on Thursday at Annunciation Church.Credit...Jenn Ackerman for The New York TimesShawn Olson, an architectural designer who lives about a mile from Annunciation, and whose children have played many a Wiffle ball game there, said he saw that love on display on Wednesday as he was driving by after the shooting.He described seeing a large group of children “all huddled together like penguins do in the Antarctic, you know, with their heads down and all jammed together.” Teachers hovered over them, he said, covering them with their arms like mother birds.“And I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, these people would do anything to protect these kids,’” he said. “It’s a beautiful thing, but they were so scared.”The assailant’s motive is unclear, but a social media account associated with the attacker contains videos of diary entries that include a drawing of the church’s sanctuary. The shooter’s mother worked in the business office of the church for five years before retiring in 2021. The F.B.I. is investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics, Kash Patel, the agency’s director, said on Wednesday.The parish celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2022, and the centennial of the school a year later. The school was led by four Dominican sisters when it opened, according to the parish’s website. The first year, 72 students were enrolled.Kenzie Huyen, 23, who went to Annunciation School through eighth grade, said she has remained in touch with friends from those days even as she moved to New York and started her career as a teacher.“I didn’t really realize how lucky I was until I kind of grew up and left and you have to create that community yourself,” Ms. Huyen said. “You just feel celebrated when you’re there,” she added. Ms. Huyen happened to be visiting home on Wednesday. She heard the sirens racing toward her old school and the helicopters buzzing overhead.The last few years have been a time of transition at the church and the school, both of which have welcomed new leaders. Father Dennis Zehren became the parish’s pastor in July, moving into the 102-year-old rectory on the church grounds.“All of us at the school and church will enjoy praying together and learning together,” Father Zehren wrote in the church bulletin distributed last weekend, just ahead of the first day of classes. “Let the school bells ring!”A few nights later, members of his church and others from the region had gathered at a Catholic high school in nearby Richfield, Minn., crowding into the gymnasium as they tried to process the unthinkable.As they prepared to leave, Archbishop Bernard Hebda of Minneapolis and St. Paul offered a prayer. “Lord, as we mourn the sudden death of our children, show us the immense power of your goodness,” he said. “Strengthen our belief that they have entered into your presence.”Aug. 28, 2025, 5:31 p.m. ETAnn Hinga KleinReporting from MinneapolisJesse Merkel, whose son Fletcher died in the attack, delivered remarks at a news conference outside Annunciation Catholic Church. “Please remember Fletcher for the person he was and not the act that ended his life,” he said. “Give your kids an extra hug and kiss today. We love you, Fletcher, you’ll always be with us.”Credit...Ann Hinga Klein for The New York TimesAug. 28, 2025, 4:22 p.m. ETThe shooting at Annunciation Catholic School caused victims to continue to be hospitalized.Credit...Jenn Ackerman for The New York TimesThe horrific violence of Wednesday’s attack on a Minneapolis Catholic school was met with acts of courage and heroism, big and small.Officials from the county medical center, where some victims were still receiving treatment on Thursday, described selfless acts they saw from medical workers, police officers, students and staff at the school.Here are some of those moments.A student shielded another with his body.Martin Scheerer, chief of emergency medical services for Hennepin County, said he was told stories of students protecting each other. He said he had heard of one child who covered another with his own body when the shooting began and took a shotgun blast to his back.He also praised teachers who brought students to a safe area outside the church and tried to keep them calm.“There’s a lot of unrecognized heroes in this event,” Mr. Scheerer said.A nurse put herself at risk to hold a child’s hand.Dr. John Gaykin, a trauma surgeon at Hennepin County Medical Center, which was still treating nine gunshot victims on Thursday, said he saw a nurse abandon safety precautions to comfort a child.He said a nurse from another unit at the hospital saw a child, scared and alone, about to go into a CT scan. Normally, medical staff members are told to evacuate the room because of radiation risk, but the nurse went into the scan with the child, took the child’s hand and held back her hair, Dr. Gaykin said.“Those are the types of things we witnessed yesterday,” Dr. Gaykin said. “Everybody in this hospital, in this organization, was there, down to the EMS, the housekeepers, the nurses that weren’t even part of it.”Emergency workers stopped victims’ bleeding on the scene.Quick work by the first police officers to arrive on the scene could have saved lives.Patient care began one or two minutes after the police secured the scene, before victims were transported to hospitals, said Dr. Aaron Robinson, the assistant medical director at Hennepin County Medical Center’s emergency medical services.He said police officers worked quickly to apply tourniquets to stop the bleeding, which made a “key difference.”“They’re not going to survive if they continue bleeding for a few minutes,” he said.Church staff members quickly sheltered students.As soon as bullets shattered the church windows, staff members acted within seconds to move children under pews, an action that saved lives, according to the authorities and witnesses.Ellie Mertens, the church’s youth minister, said in an interview on Wednesday that Matthew D. DeBoer, the school principal, and other staff members had an “instinctual” reaction to the sound of gunfire and “instructed everyone to get down.” Mr. DeBoer said in a statement that faculty and students moved “within seconds” to shield one another, especially the youngest of the children.“Our teachers were heroes,” Mr. DeBoer said. “Children were ducked down, adults were protecting children — older children were protecting younger children.”Aishvarya Kavi contributed reporting.Aug. 28, 2025, 4:00 p.m. ETWhile speaking at a steel plant in Wisconsin, Vice President JD Vance prayed for victims in Minnesota and said he will be a part of an effort, along with the first lady and the president, to “start asking some very hard questions about the root causes of this violence.”“We really do have a mental health crisis in the United States of America,” Vance told the gathered crowd. “We take more psychiatric medication than any other nation on Earth.”Aug. 28, 2025, 3:38 p.m. ETThere is surveillance video from the church, which helped confirm that the shooter did not enter the building, said Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief.Aug. 28, 2025, 3:37 p.m. ETThere is no evidence so far that suggests the shooter obtained weapons illegally, said Brian O’Hara, the police chief. He added that the shooter did not have a criminal history.Aug. 28, 2025, 3:35 p.m. ETWhile the shooter was a former student at Annunciation Catholic Church and attended Mass there, the police have not identified a triggering event or a specific grievance against the church, said Brian O’Hara, the police chief.Aug. 28, 2025, 3:33 p.m. ETBrian O’Hara, the police chief, said he was not aware of the shooter having had a diagnosis of a mental health issue.Videotranscriptbars0:00/0:43-0:00transcriptThe question was about the doors being locked at the church. Annunciation church had a practice that once Mass began, they locked the doors of the church. This incident occurred shortly after the Mass was beginning, so there’s no question that the fact that doors were locked likely saved additional lives. At the same time, we also know that the shooter intended to barricade and did barricade the doors on the same side of the church where the shooting occurred. So what’s particularly heinous and cowardly about this is these children were slaughtered by a shooter who could not see them.CreditCredit...ReutersAug. 28, 2025, 3:26 p.m. ETAnn KleinDoors at the school had been locked from the inside by the church, officials said, a practice the school had in place during Mass and that likely saved lives. They added that the shooter had attended school and Mass there in the past.Credit...Jenn Ackerman for The New York TimesAug. 28, 2025, 3:23 p.m. ETWhile investigators are still combing through evidence, Joe Thompson, the acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, said that the shooter was “obsessed” with the idea of killing children.Aug. 28, 2025, 3:17 p.m. ETAuthorities also recovered three shotgun shells and one live round from a hand gun that Chief Brian O’Hara said appears to have malfunctioned.Aug. 28, 2025, 3:14 p.m. ETThe Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, said at a news conference that 116 rifle rounds were found at the scene. The shooter wanted to gain notoriety, O’Hara said.Aug. 28, 2025, 2:21 p.m. ETWithin the last three months, the suspect visited the Annunciation Catholic Church and went inside to conduct what the authorities call “preoperational surveillance” — basically casing it out — according to a senior law enforcement official who was briefed on the matter. The official spoke anonymously to discuss the investigation.Aug. 28, 2025, 2:19 p.m. ETAt an afternoon news conference, Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis emphatically called for federal and state bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. “We are committed to making this time different,” he said, adding, “There is no reason that someone should be able to reel off 30 shots before they even have to reload.”VideoCreditCredit...ReutersAug. 28, 2025, 1:53 p.m. ETAt the White House press briefing, reporters asked how Americans can feel safer after the Catholic school shooting. Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, did not have an answer when asked if the Trump administration would call for more resources for school officials to minimize the threat of such shootings.Aug. 28, 2025, 1:41 p.m. ETAt the White House press briefing, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, talked about the shooting, saying the “sacred religious service” that was taking place at the Catholic school was “desecrated” by “an evil monster.” She reiterated that the attack was being viewed as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime against Catholics by the F.B.I.VideoCreditCredit...Associated PressAug. 28, 2025, 1:16 p.m. ETOne child has been added to the list of injured victims in the shooting at the Annunciation Catholic Church, bringing the total number of injured to 18, Minneapolis city officials said in a statement on Thursday.Aug. 28, 2025, 1:14 p.m. ETOne father who attended a vigil for the people killed and injured in a shooting in Minnesota this week said he worried “it could be my children.”Credit...Liam James Doyle for The New York TimesIt’s not even September.The Catholic school shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday brought to life many parents’ worst nightmare, days into the new school year, and before school has even begun in some parts of the country.Alton Finch, 33, brought his two daughters to a vigil in Minneapolis on Wednesday night and voiced the feeling of parents everywhere. “It could be my children,” he told The Minnesota Star Tribune.The Minneapolis shooting killed two children and injured 17 others, most of them children, during a back-to-school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church. It was a grim reminder of the realities of being a parent — and child — in America. Whether children are going off to preschool or freshman year of college, there is no guarantee that they will come home safe.Though mass shootings at school remain rare, episodes of gun violence on school campuses have become more common in recent years.At least 250 people were injured or killed on school grounds in each of the last three years, the highest number on record, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which tracks all incidents of guns being used on school property. Many did not make national news, but among them were high-profile attacks like one at a Georgia high school at around the same time last year, which was the deadliest school shooting in that state’s history.At the same time, there has been a spate of false reports of shootings on college campuses to start this school year, leaving parents and students on edge.At least a dozen colleges have been the target of fraudulent reports of active shooters on campus, known as swatting. Villanova University was subject to two back-to-back active shooter warnings as school started this month, both of which turned out to be fake. In some cases, students have had to run for cover, leaving them and their families panicked, before law enforcement officers have given the all clear.High-profile incidents can add to the sense of fear for many parents and children, even as data shows that gun violence in the United States is on the decline after a spike during the pandemic.This year is on track to have fewer mass shootings overall, down from the peak in 2021.Still, that can do little to reassure parents, who have little trouble imagining that their child could be next, that rare and unlucky statistic that would shatter their world.Emily Koski, a Minneapolis City Council member whose ward includes the church that was attacked, recalled sending her son, now 15, off to kindergarten, with the possibility of an attack lingering at the forefront of her mind.“I watched him walk away from me with his backpack,” she said, “and I literally thought to myself: This could be my last day of seeing him.”Ernesto Londoño contributed reportingAug. 28, 2025, 12:26 p.m. ETAnn Hinga KleinReporting from MinneapolisPeter Romens, 28, who is studying theology at nearby St. Paul Seminary, stopped to pray by the memorial outside the site of the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church on Thursday. “It doesn’t make sense what happened,” he said, speaking in stops and starts. “Just the, the attack on innocence, on goodness,” he added, his voice breaking.Romens, who knows the Annunciation school’s priest, said he would be ordained as a priest himself in a year. He also seemed to be recognizing the task that might lie ahead for him as he enters the priesthood in a nation facing an epidemic of gun violence and mass shootings.“I can’t imagine being father, the pastor here,” he said.Aug. 28, 2025, 12:17 p.m. ETFlowers left at the Annunciation Catholic Church on behalf of the families of victims from the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 21 people were killed by a gunman.Credit...Abbie Parr/Associated PressAug. 28, 2025, 12:04 p.m. ETAnn Hinga KleinReporting from MinneapolisIn describing the post-shooting rescue efforts with physicians at the hospital’s news conference, Marty Scheerer, the chief of Hennepin County’s emergency medical services, said: “They talk about the golden hour, it’s not an hour. You have minutes.”Scheerer said that because victims had been taken to three different hospitals, some families ended up driving from hospital to hospital in search of their injured children.Aug. 28, 2025, 12:02 p.m. ETThe death toll from Wednesday’s shooting could have been far higher, hospital officials said. “There were a lot of gunshot wounds in places that were meant to kill people,” said Dr. John Gaykin, a trauma surgeon at Hennepin County Medical Center.Aug. 28, 2025, 11:57 a.m. ETSome victims sustained their injuries while protecting others, according to Marty Scheerer, the director of emergency medical services at Hennepin County Medical Center. He said one child “took a shotgun blast to his back” while shielding another child.