Two children were killed in the pews where they were worshipping Wednesday by a shooter firing “cowardly” at them during a back-to-school Mass, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a press event outside Annunciation Catholic School.
O’Hara said the children killed were 8 years old and 10 years old. Both were killed while sitting in their pews for a worshipping service marking the first week of school.
The shooter, O’Hara said, was firing from the outside the church through the windows.
Seventeen others were injured in the shooting, including 14 children. All remaining victims are expected to survive, O’Hara noted in an afternoon press conference.
The shooter died by suicide, O’Hara said.
“The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” added O’Hara, who said the shooter was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol.
Authorities later identified the shooter to The Associated Press as Robin Westman. O’Hara had earlier described the shooter as a man in his early 20s who had no major previous criminal record. The shooter was dressed in all black.
President Trump, who was briefed on the shooting, held a conversation earlier in the day with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence,” Walz wrote in a post on social media.
Minnesota’s senators also decried the shooting while offering thanks for first responders.
You can read more about what is known about the shooting here.
In other news, Trump’s 50 percent tariff on imports from India went into effect Wednesday morning, weeks after he threatened “severe consequences” on trading partners that purchase Russian oil and gas.
The steep import tax comes as Trump continues to push Russia and Ukraine to come to a ceasefire agreement after meeting separately with the leaders of both nations earlier this month. The president, in his second term, has also soured on former ally Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Trump administration also placed several employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on leave late Tuesday after they attached their name to a dissent letter against the agency’s policies earlier this week. More than 180 current and former staffers signed on to the letter, but the majority of those signing on did so anonymously.
The president also escalated his rhetoric around combating crime in the nation’s capital, telling reporters Tuesday that he would push for the death penalty in murder cases in D.C. and suggested early Wednesday he could work with Congress on a “comprehensive” crime bill.
Trump and Vice President Vance are expected to meet for lunch later Wednesday.
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