CMEDIA: A Minnesota Catholic school shooting reportedly today has killed two, over 20 others injured, a U.S. Justice Department official said.
The shooter was among those killed, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Two days after school started, the shooting occurred at Annunciation Catholic school, a private elementary school with about 395 students.
Connected to Annunciation Catholic Church, both the school and the church are located in a residential area in the southeast part of Minnesota’s largest city.
The assailant armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, a man in his early 20s, fired dozens of rounds through the church windows and then took his own life, officials said.
A man dressed all in black, said Police in Richfield, a nearby suburb, with a rifle was reported at the scene.
Children were at a morning mass when shooting began.
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other worshippers. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters.
Preliminary information indicated that a man stepped out of a vehicle and fired an estimated 30 rounds from a high-velocity .223 rifle at a group gathered on the sidewalk along Clinton Ave before fleeing the scene in the vehicle.
Local TV showed parents ducking under yellow police crime tape and leading students out of the school.
The students wore green polo shirts and blue shorts and skirts.
The shooter, said the officials, did not have an extensive criminal history. They did not provide his name and said they were trying to identify a motive.
In an effort to investigate multiple online videos, law enforcement were trying to determine if they were posts by the shooter, according to two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
15 children and two adults, with many suffering gunshot wounds, were being treated by the local hospitals.
With more than 140 such incidents so far this year, the K-12 School Shooting Database revealed school shootings occur on a regular basis in the U.S. spurring ongoing debates about gun laws and school safety.
“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a news conference, visibly angry.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the shooting and said the FBI was on the scene. “Please join me in praying for everyone involved!” he said on social media.
Monitoring the situation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is in touch with local authorities, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on social media.
Since Tuesday afternoon, there have been three other shootings in the midwestern city including one at a Jesuit high school, that have together left three people dead and seven wounded, according to police.
Wednesday’s shooting did not appear to be related to the others, O’Hara said.
In the years following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, which prompted nationwide protests, civil disturbances and staffing shortages in the city’s police department, Minneapolis has experienced a significant rise in homicides.
The city recorded 54 homicides last year, down from 71 in 2021 but well above the 29 recorded in 2019.
An incident of political violence was also experienced by Minnesota in June, when a gunman posing as a police officer allegedly assassinated a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in their home, and wounded another lawmaker and his wife.
Arrest of the suspect facing state and federal murder charges, followed after a massive two-day manhunt.
With the Minnesota state as a whole having a gun death rate below the national average, background checks for all gun sales are required by the state law, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun violence prevention group.
