Witnesses to a mass shooting in the US state of Minneapolis have described the “terrifying” scenes after an attacker opened fire on a church in which children were celebrating Mass on Wednesday morning.
One young boy described being protected by a friend who got hit himself.
Two children were killed and 17 others injured in an incident that the FBI is treating as an anti-Catholic hate crime.
The attacker, named as 23-year-old Robin Westman, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities have not yet given a suspected motive.
Westman was a former pupil of the school that is adjacent to the church, CNN reported. The attacker’s mother previously worked at the establishment, according to a school newsletter from 2016.
The young survivor, 10-year-old Weston Halsne, explained to CBS affiliate station WCCO that his friend saved him from bullets by lying on top of him.
“I was like two seats away from the stained glass window,” he said. “My friend, Victor, saved me though, because he laid on top of me, but he got hit.”
He continued: “My friend got hit in the back, he went to the hospital… I was super scared for him but I think now he’s okay.”
Weston said he and his classmates were well-drilled in what to do in a shooting situation – but not in the environment in which they found themselves. “We practise it every month, but not in church, only in the school,” he said.
The suspect Westman is believed to have approached the side of the Annunciation Church, which also houses a school, and fired dozens of shots through the windows using three firearms. Police also found a smoke bomb at the scene.
Officials are investigating whether the shots were fired from inside the building or outside it, noting that no casings from bullets were found inside.
Locals described their confusion when they heard the shots ring out. One man, Mike Garrity, told NBC News that he believed it was the sound of a nail gun at a nearby construction site.
Bill Bienemann, who lives two blocks away, spoke to reporters near the scene and recalled the moment: “I said there’s no way that could be gunfire because there’s so much of it.”
Another local resident, PJ Mudd, who was working from home on Wednesday morning, told the Wall Street Journal he heard three booms. “It suddenly dawned on me – it was a shooting.”
Mr Mudd then ran to the church, where he saw three magazine cartridges on the ground.
Witnesses including Mr Garrity also described the horrifying spectacle of children emerging from the church covered in blood.
Another neighbour, Patrick Scallen, told the BBC that he saw three children fleeing the building – one of them a girl with a head wound.
“She kept saying, ‘please hold my hand, don’t leave me’, and I said I wasn’t going anywhere.”
A nanny who works nearby said she was relieved to see some children leaving the building unharmed, but was disturbed by “the looks on their faces alone”.
“You see videos online, but it does not compare to seeing it and witnessing it in person,” Madee Brandt told NBC. “That was rough… it is terrifying.”
Hundreds of people attended a vigil for the victims on Wednesday evening at another nearby school.
Those who were injured in the shooting are expected to recover, and some have already been released from hospital.
One mother told CNN that she was relieved her children were not hurt in the incident, but that she had “such mixed feelings right now”.
Carla Maldonado spoke of being “incredibly sad and angry that this has to be a thing in any school”. She went on to say: “The lives that were lost [are] too much. One is too much. It’s not okay.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz offered a similar sentiment, saying the situation was “all too common – not just in Minnesota, but across the country”.
Walz said US President Donald Trump and his team had expressed their “deep condolences” and offered assistance.
Trump later said the US flag would be flown at half-mast at the White House as a show of respect to the victims.
Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, was among those who paid tribute to the young victims, saying he was “profoundly saddened” by the attack.
Giving updates in a press conference on Wednesday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the attacker did not have an “extensive known criminal history”, and acted alone.
Police say they found a “manifesto” that Westman timed to publish on YouTube at the time of the shooting. The FBI assisted officials and took it down.
Westman’s name was legally changed from Robert to Robin in 2020, Minnesota court records show. In the application the judge wrote: “Minor child identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
