UPDATE: On Thursday, Minneapolis officials updated the number of people wounded in the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting from 17 to 18.
Two back-to-back mass shootings in less than 24 hours in Minneapolis have left community members devastated and searching for solutions.
A shooting about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at Annunciation Catholic Church on W. 54th Street near Lyndale Avenue in south Minneapolis left two children dead and 18 people injured, most of them children. Another shooting about four miles north killed one man and injured 6 people about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
When violence prevention activist Muhammad Abdul-Ahad woke up Wednesday morning and saw news that another mass shooting had occurred, he felt like he was in a dream. He drove out to the scene and watched police cars fill the streets.
“I’m still just in disbelief,” he told Sahan Journal Wednesday. “It just took me back to yesterday, and I was just like: This can’t be happening.”
Abdul-Ahad leads TOUCH Outreach, a group that works on public safety issues and has been active in the West Phillips neighborhood where Tuesday’s shooting occurred near Cristo Rey Jesuit High School. He says he knows the man killed Tuesday, who the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet publicly identified.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Wednesday that the two shootings are not related. He identified Wednesday’s shooter as 23-year-old Robin Westman, and said he apparently fatally shot himself. O’Hara said two people have been arrested in connection with Tuesday’s shooting, but that the alleged shooter has not been apprehended.
O’Hara said Westman stood outside the church and fired into the stained glass windows of Annunciation Catholic Church as students prayed during Catholic Mass during the first week of school. Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed. The 17 people wounded consisted of children and three adults in their 80s.
“This deliberate act of violence is a sign of cruelty that is beyond comprehension,” said O’Hara, who called the shooter a “coward” in his remarks during a news conference. “Our hearts are broken for everyone that’s been affected by this tragedy as we begin the difficult path of healing.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey appeared at the news conference with O’Hara, asking people not to “say this is about thoughts and prayers right now – these kids were literally praying.”
“Children are dead. There are families that have a deceased child. We cannot put into words the gravity, the tragedy or the absolute pain of this situation,” Frey said. “I’m so deeply saddened, and I’m so sorry for the families that I know are suffering.”
O’Hara said police provided first aid to victims at the scene Wednesday, and rescued children hiding throughout the church. Westman was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, which were all purchased legally, he said.
The school teaches students from preschool to eighth grade.
Minneapolis police and other law enforcement agencies executed four search warrants related to Wednesday’s shooting, one at the church and three at residences around the metro, where more firearms were recovered, O’Hara said.
Westman apparently timed his attack with the release of a manifesto video on YouTube, which appeared to show him at the scene and included “some disturbing writings,” O’Hara said. Screenshots of the video, which has since been taken down with the help of the FBI, circulated on social media and appeared to show firearms magazines with slurs and slogans written on them.
A coach rushes to Wednesday’s shooting
Lee Latham, 43, coaches football and baseball in Richfield, but most of the kids on his teams attend Annunciation Catholic School. He told his players at a practice Tuesday night that he’d be there for them if they ever needed anything.
“I wanted to make sure that they knew that they are part of a community, and that we got to take care of each other,” he said.
Latham was eating breakfast Wednesday morning when he heard about the shooting. He rushed to the school to follow through on the promise he made the night before.
He checked in with the kids and their families, and offered to provide any support they needed. He stayed at the scene for hours, watching the law enforcement response from behind yellow caution tape.
“I just had to get up here and check on my players,” he told Sahan Journal.
A coach for eight years, Latham said he did it to be a positive role model for children, and to foster a sense of community to help prevent incidents like Wednesday’s shooting.
“It’s for the kids, so this doesn’t happen when they grow up, man,” he said while holding back tears. “When you don’t have community, when you don’t have your neighbor knowing what your kids are doing, when adults aren’t being active in their community with the children, violence like this comes up.”
Madee Brandt, who works as a nanny at a home located a few minutes from the church, was driving to work Wednesday when she turned onto Diamond Lake Road and saw dozens of law enforcement vehicles. She had unknowingly arrived just minutes after the first Minneapolis police squad cars, and ended up blocked in as more local, state and federal law enforcement responded to the scene.
“[Law enforcement] looked so worried. Everybody was running so fast, and they just kept coming one after the other,” she said, “all carrying those big guns, putting on their belts with the handguns too and all the vests and helmets. It was like a warzone.”
Brandt sat trapped in her car, worried about whether the shooter was still at large until news outlets later reported that he was no longer active. Then she started to see children trickling out from behind the yellow caution tape.
“I was thankful to see kids coming out unharmed and safe,” Brandt said, “but the looks on some of their faces, the screams coming from the moms who didn’t know where their kids were — it was just devastating.”
Politicians, activists call for gun control
Some community members and local politicians are calling for stricter gun control, voicing concerns about shootings occurring during the day, and the types of weapons being used. Tuesday’s shooting involved a high-velocity rifle, and Wednesday’s shooting involved three different types of guns.
“These weapons and acts of violence have no place in Minneapolis or anywhere,” Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez wrote on X Wednesday. “I’m committed to coming together with all levels of government to address this. The lives of our future generations depend on it.”
Maggiy Emery, who leads Protect Minnesota, a statewide gun violence prevention organization, said shootings like these are a nationwide issue. The recent shootings and the June assassination of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, show that Minnesota is not exempt from gun violence, she added.
“We’re not different than other states, we’re not better than other states,” Emery said. “We have people here who have the same issues. We have people here who have access to the same guns. So my hope is that this will help our leadership understand how important this issue is and take it seriously.”
Emery said it’s too early to know what exactly led to Wednesday’s shooting, but said there are regulatory measures that can be enforced to prevent gun violence. However, she said some recent developments in Minnesota are a step in the wrong direction. She pointed to how the Minnesota Supreme Court recently ruled that it’s legal for people to possess ghost guns without serial numbers, and how a Ramsey County judge struck down a law that bans trigger devices that double the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons
“We can do things to prevent this. This is not an inevitability. This happens when there are not regulations in place to stop it, and we can stop it,” she said.
City Council Member Jamal Osman represents Ward 6, where Tuesday’s shooting occurred. He said that corridor is home to many immigrants and people of color.
Two other shootings took place in Minneapolis between the mass shooting Tuesday afternoon and the mass shooting Wednesday morning — one occurred about 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Whittier neighborhood, and another at about 2 a.m. Wednesday downtown. The Whittier shooting resulted in one death and another person was likely injured. One person died in the downtown shooting and one person was injured.
“The last 24 hours have been devastating,” Osman said. “It’s really hard to describe any of what we are noticing right now, but if this is not a wake up call, I don’t know what it is.”
Annunciation Catholic Church is located in Ward 11, which is represented by Council Member Emily Koski. It borders Ward 13, which is represented by Council Member Linea Palmisano.
“This is a heartbreaking day for our city. Today, we must come together in compassion and support for those directly impacted,” the council members said in a joint statement.
Community members and city officials are grappling with how to move forward after the burst of gun violence. Osman said he is advocating for more police patrols in the area where Tuesday’s shooting took place.
Jordan Borer Nelson, president of the Minneapolis chapter of MAD DADS, which does violence prevention work, said it’s important that the city invest in resources that stop violence from happening in the first place.
“Otherwise, we’re always going to just be reacting to homicides, to violence, to robberies,” he said, adding that the city should focus on “more proactive solutions” so “people aren’t even put in those positions to want to even commit acts like that.”
He said groups like MAD DADS have connections with community members, and try to deescalate a situation from spiralling out of control.
Abdul-Ahad, the activist who leads TOUCH Outreach, said he’s seen people in the neighborhood where Tuesday’s shooting occurred struggle with addiction, mental health and homelessness.
“This is something much bigger than just telling somebody to put a gun down,” he said.
DFL state Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, who represents the community where Wednesday’s shooting occurred, said she was at home when she received a call informing her about the shooting. Mohamed told Sahan Journal that her “heart just dropped.”
Mohamed said she received a number of calls from constituents, some of whom she knows personally, whose kids attend the school, searching for any information about what was happening and if their children were okay. People who don’t have kids but who worship at the church also reached out to her “horrified,” she said.
“This space is a pillar in our community,” she said. “It’s a space that interconnects our community, that has been a safe haven for many, and I think what’s happened today has impacted people in ways that we never fathomed.”
Mohamed stressed that the shootings Tuesday and Wednesday were unrelated, and that her focus is on mourning with the victims and their families. But, she said, preventing school shootings, which she called an “epidemic,” and shootings in general require action.
“We have to do something about the guns on our streets, and that there has to be stricter laws on who can obtain these guns and who can’t,” she said, “and I think that’s a conversation that adults need to have.”
The Minnesota House People of Color and Indigenous Caucus released a statement Wednesday, calling for a united response to end gun violence.
“The epidemic of gun violence continues to wreak havoc on our neighborhoods, and we have to offer our community more than simple platitudes,” the statement read in part. “We need tangible solutions and the political courage to act. We will not accept this as ‘normal’ and will not continue to turn a blind eye to an obvious issue affecting our state and nation.”
