Two children and the shooter killed in Minnesota church shooting

August 27,2025

RED FM News Desk

Minneapolis police reported Wednesday that a shooting at a Catholic school church left three people dead, including the shooter, and 19 others injured. 

Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the victims included two children, aged eight and ten. The shooter reportedly positioned themselves outside a window of Annunciation Church and fired inside, hitting worshippers seated in the pews. The assailant was armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol, all legally purchased, O’Hara said. 

“The sheer cruelty and cowardice, firing into a church full of children, is absolutely incomprehensible,” O’Hara said. Officials added that the shooter, believed to be in their early 20s, had no known connection to Annunciation Catholic School. 

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz described the attack as horrifying, saying the children inside were “met with evil and death.” He called the shooting “unthinkable” and noted such incidents are “all too common” across the U.S., not just in Minnesota. 

Authorities said the shooting appeared to be an isolated incident, unrelated to other recent violent events in the city, including a separate school-area shooting on Tuesday that left one person dead and six others injured. 

Police later identified the shooter as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who had no known criminal history. Officials confirmed there was no longer an active threat to residents, and O’Hara said the shooter likely died from a self-inflicted gunshot. 

Among the injured were 14 children and three adults in their 80s. Hennepin Healthcare reported that one adult and six children are in critical condition, while one adult and two children sustained non-life-threatening injuries. 

A student, Clarissa Garcia, described being led by a teacher to hide in a preschool classroom during the attack. 

Minnesota has experienced other high-profile shootings this year, including a June incident where a man disguised as a law enforcement official killed former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and seriously injured another Democratic lawmaker and spouse in the northern Minneapolis suburbs.