Update: Two Students Killed, 14 Students Hurt in Mass Shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis

Originally published August 27th, 2025 9:04 a.m.

Updated August 27th, 2025 11:22 a.m.

(KNSI) – Two students have been killed and more than a dozen other children hurt in a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in south Minneapolis on Wednesday morning.

According to Police Chief Brian O’Hara, around 8:30, a gunman walked up to the building and opened fire through the windows at the kids as they were praying in the pews. Two students, ages eight and ten, were killed where they sat. The suspect was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. When police arrived at the scene, officers immediately began first aid and rescuing the kids who were hiding throughout the building. In all, 17 people were hurt. Fourteen of them are children.

A breathless and visibly shaken Mayor Jacob Frey urged people not to think of these students as “just somebody else’s kids,” adding these were families and “think of this as if it were your own [kids].”

He said this is also “not about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. They were in a church. These are kids who should be learning with their friends. They should be playing on the playground.”

This was the first week of school at Annunciation, which serves pre-K through 8th grade.

Chief O’Hara called the shooting “a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”

The suspect was found with what police believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The investigation is in its early stages, but O’Hara said the shooter was in his early 20s and from what they have gathered so far, he does not have an extensive criminal history. Investigators are looking through what was left behind to determine a motive.

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