Federal investigators say a mass shooting at a Minneapolis school that killed two children and injured 17 others is being treated as an anti-Catholic hate crime.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X that the attack is being investigated as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.”
The violence erupted Wednesday morning at Annunciation Church, where students were attending Mass. Police say the gunman, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, fired dozens of rounds through church windows using a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. Two children, ages eight and ten, were killed.
Westman died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police also recovered a smoke bomb nearby.
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and worshippers,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said. “The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”
Authorities have not confirmed a motive. Investigators are still trying to determine if shots were fired inside the building or only from outside, as no bullet casings were found indoors.
Eyewitnesses described the chaos. “I could hear ‘boom, boom, boom,’” said PJ Mudd, who lives near the church. “It suddenly dawned on me—it was a shooting.”
One 10-year-old survivor told CBS affiliate WCCO that his friend shielded him from bullets. “My friend, Victor, saved me because he laid on top of me, but he got hit in the back,” the boy said. Victor was hospitalized and is recovering.
Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, said he was “profoundly saddened” by the attack and paid tribute to the young victims.
Annunciation Church sits in a residential neighborhood in southern Minneapolis and operates a school for children ages 5 to 14. A school newsletter shows that Westman’s mother once worked there before retiring in 2021. Investigators say Westman had scheduled an online post to go live during the shooting, but it has since been removed.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said President Donald Trump offered condolences and support, calling the tragedy “all too common.” Trump later announced the U.S. flag would be flown at half-staff at the White House to honor the victims.
