UPDATE
Two children, ages 8 and 10, were pronounced dead at the scene, Reuters said. Multiple other children and several adults were injured.
Dr. Tom Wyatt, Chair of the Hennepin Healthcare Emergency Department, said during a briefing that six children and an adult are currently in critical condition. Another adult and two other children have non-life-threatening injuries.
Nick Petersen, a spokesman from Children’s Minnesota, said the hospital was treating “seven children between ages 9 and 16.”
The shooter has been identified as Robin Westman, 23, of Richfield, Minnesota. The shooter’s mother once worked at the school, according to an online database.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said Wednesday that the three weapons used in the incident were recently purchased, but the motive remains unclear.
“I have no information to share on a motive, other than to say there was some kind of manifesto timed to come out on YouTube. That has been taken down.”
KARE 11 reports that’s believed the shooter attended the school for at least one year. The outlet said the shooter’s manifesto including information about mass shootings, school shootings, and suicide.
References to mass shootings reportedly dated back to when Westman was a 7th grader.
In an August 20 entry, Westman wrote about carrying out an attack on the church.
“I bet they won’t anticipate an attack in the first week.”
Westman also reportedly mentioned checking the doors at the school, and barricading them to prevent people from escaping.
On Wednesday morning, O’Hara said that two of the doors at the school had been barricaded.
Initial Coverage
A Minneapolis school shooting has left two children dead, and 17 others injured, police said Wednesday.
According to FOX News Digital, the incident happened at the Annunciation Catholic School after a male in his 20s, dressed in black and armed, began firing shots at the school, striking multiple people.
Following the attack, the shooter reportedly took his own life.
“During the mass, a gunman approached on the outside on the side of the building and began firing a rifle through the church windows towards the children sitting in the pews at the mass. Shooting through the windows, he struck children and worshipers that were inside the building,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.
“The shooter was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. This was 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.
“Two young children, ages eight and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews. Their parents have been notified. Seventeen other people were injured, 14 of them being children.
“The coward who fired these shots ultimately took his own life in the rear of the church.”
Six children are currently being treated at the Children’s Minnesota Hospital, while other victims were taken to Hennepin Healthcare.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the school’s students are in kindergarten through 8th grade and that they started the new school year on Monday.
They were reportedly in a regularly scheduled mass when the shooting began. The first calls came in at about 8:30 a.m.
The incident, according to NBC News, marks the fifth school shooting this year.
AP News reports that the police chief said the shooter didn’t appear to have an extensive criminal history and is “believed to have acted alone.”
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[Featured image: Law enforcement officers gather outside the Annunciation Church’s school in response to a reported mass shooting, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)