A shooter opened fire Wednesday morning on children celebrating mass during the beginning of their school day at a Catholic church in Minneapolis, police said, leaving three people dead, including the shooter, and 19 injured.

The children killed were eight and 10 years old, Minneapolis police Chief Brian O'Hara said at a news conference of local officials. O'Hara said the shooter set up outside a window of Annunciation Church and fired into it, striking worshippers in pews.

The shooter was armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, he said. In a later update Wednesday afternoon, officials said the weapons had been purchased legally.

"The sheer cruelty and cowardice, firing into a church full of children, is absolutely incomprehensible," O'Hara said.

There was no indication the shooter, believed to be in their early 20s, had any affiliation with Annunciation Catholic School, officials said.

Speaking hours later, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the children inside the church were"met with evil and horror, and death."

"We often come to these unspeakable tragedies and say, 'There are no words for this.' There shouldn't be words for this because they shouldn't happen," he said.

WATCH | Shooting an 'act of cowardice,' police chief says:

Minneapolis police chief says shooter fired into church full of schoolchildren

9 hours ago

Minneapolis police Chief Brian O'Hara said a shooter fired through church windows on Wednesday during a service to mark the first week of class for Catholic school, in what he called a 'deliberate act of violence' against innocent children and worshippers.

The governor called the shooting"unthinkable, but it's all too common, not just in Minnesota, but across this country."

The shooting is believed to have been isolated and not connected with any other violent incidents in the city. One of those incidents, which happened Tuesday afternoon, saw one person killed and six others hurt in a shooting outside a high school in Minneapolis.

In the afternoon update, police identified the assailant as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who had no known criminal history.

Minneapolis city officials had said earlier that the shooter had been"contained" after the gunfire, and there was no longer any"active threat" to residents. O'Hara said it was believed the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Among the injured were 14 children and three adults in their 80s. According to Hennepin Healthcare, the hospital treating victims of the shooting, one adult and six children are in critical condition, and one adult and two children are being treated for non-life threatening injuries. In his afternoon update, O'Hara said all of these victims are expected to survive.

O'Hara also said dozens of officers responded to the shooting and many of them — as well as the children and staff present in the church — are deeply traumatized by what they saw.

Clarissa Garcia, a student at the school who witnessed the shooting, told local reporters she was led downstairs by a teacher to hide in a preschool classroom.

WATCH | 'Me and my friend ... were just praying and praying':

Minneapolis student recounts hearing 'really loud' noise during church shooting

7 hours ago

A mother and daughter describe moments of fear and confusion after a deadly shooting at a Catholic school's church in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Suzanne Garcia said she was at work when she heard about the shooting and raced to the scene looking for her daughter, Clarissa, a fifth grader at the school.

"I was just at church and I heard something really loud. Like, I thought it was fireworks in the church, and then I saw the shooting and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm so scared,'" Clarissa said, her mother Suzanne Garcia at her side.

Once inside the downstairs classroom, Clarissa said she and a friend"were just praying and praying."

"You cannot put into words the gravity, the tragedy or the absolute pain of this situation," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.

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.

The school was evacuated, and students' families were later directed to a"reunification zone" at the school. Outside, amid a heavy uniformed law enforcement presence, were uniformed children in their dark green shirts or dresses. Many were trickling out of the school with adults, giving lingering hugs and wiping away tears.

Danielle Gunter, the mother of an eighth-grade boy who was shot, said in a statement that her son told her a Minneapolis police officer"really helped him" by giving aid and a hug before her son got into an ambulance.

First week of school

Bernard Hebda, the Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, shared a message from Pope Leo XIV, who he said underwent Catholic training in the area,"and he's been reminding everyone from Minnesota that he spent some time here."

Hebda said the Pope imparted his apostolic peace to the community.

"His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV, was profoundly saddened to learn of the loss of life and injuries," Hebda said, reading the message."He sends his heartfelt condolences and spiritual closeness to all of those affected, especially those families grieving the loss of a child."

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a post on his platform Truth Social that he was briefed on the"tragic shooting" and that the White House would continue to monitor it.

'It's little kids'

The elementary school, which dates back to 1923, had an all-school mass scheduled at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday for its students, who range from pre-kindergarten to Grade 8, according to its website. Monday was the first day of classes for the school.

Alexandra Bienemann told The Associated Press that she attended the school from kindergarten to Grade 8, finishing in 2014. After she heard of the shooting, she said she was shaking and crying, and her boss told her to take the day off.

"It breaks my heart, makes me sick to my stomach, knowing that there are people I know who are either injured or maybe even killed," she said."It doesn't make me feel safe at all in this community that I have been in for so long."

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 said she was asking God:"Why?"

"It's little kids," she said through tears."It's just really hard for me to take in."

In 2020, a judge approved a petition, signed by Westman's mother, asking for a name change for her child to Robin, saying the petitioner"identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification."

O'Hara said police hadn't yet found any relationship between the shooter and the church, nor had they determined a motive for the bloodshed.

He said authorities were aware of video posted online that the shooter had timed for release on YouTube, adding that the content has been removed and is being reviewed as part of the investigation.

In a post on the social media platform X, FBI director Kash Patel said the shooting is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.

Churches, schools often targeted

In 2023, more than 47,000 people died in gun-related violence in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center, with 38 per cent — accounting for nearly 18,000 deaths — attributable to criminal acts and the majority to suicide.

While they get significant media coverage due to their threat to public safety, mass shootings account for a very small percentage of the human losses the U.S. sees each year from gun violence.

The definition of a mass shooting differs according to those who track incidents. The Gun Violence Archive, an online database, recorded 722 deaths in 2023 attributable to mass shooting — defined as involving four or more people shot. The FBI collects data on"active shooter incidents," or shootings in a "populated area," which has a lower figure.

But schools and churches have been frequent targets for shooters. A gunman killed 26 people at a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in 2017, while a white supremacist faces a rare federal death penalty sentence after killing nine Black Americans at a Methodist church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015.

Communities in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 and Uvalde, Texas, a decade later have each grappled with school shootings that killed large numbers of elementary school students — 20 and 19 child victims, respectively, in those incidents.

"This kind of evil act shouldn't happen, but it happens far too often," Frey said."Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now," he said, referring to a common refrain in the wake of school shootings that have not led to meaningful changes in public policy.

During Trump's first term in office, he hosted a"listening session" at the White House in 2018 after 17 were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., but despite activism from some of the school's students, no meaningful gun reforms resulted at the federal or state levels.

The first significant federal gun legislation in nearly 30 years occurred in 2022, in the wake of shootings in Uvalde and at a Buffalo supermarket. The bill increased funding for states to implement red flag laws for potentially troubling gun purchases, as well as to strengthen background checks for some buyers.

Minnesota was rocked by a shooting spree in June. Police have accused a man who they say was disguised as a law enforcement official of fatally shooting former Democratic House speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband. The couple were shot at their home in the northern Minneapolis suburbs, while another Democratic lawmaker and his wife were seriously injured a few kilometres away.