The morning of Aug. 27, a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School took the lives of two students, and left at least 21 injured. This includes 18 students and three senior citizens. No less than seven of the victims were in critical condition upon arrival at a nearby hospital. The shooter has been identified as Robin Westman, a former student at Annunciation Catholic School. Officials have said Westman was armed with a rifle, pistol, and shotgun, which allegedly fired over a hundred rounds through the church windows. Immediately after, Westman died of a self-inflicted gunshot in the church’s rear parking lot , marking this tragedy as a murder-suicide.
At a press conference just hours after the shooting occurred, Minneapolis Chief of Police Brian O’Hara recounted the shooter’s actions.
“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. This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping,” O’Hara said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also spoke at the press conference making it clear that the magnitude of this incident is unbearable.
“There are no words that can capture the horror and the evil of this unspeakable act. Children are dead, there are families that have a deceased child. You can not put into words the gravity, the tragedy, or the absolute pain of this situation,” Frey said.
Frey went on to say that no parent nor student should need to have any fear when going to school or church.
“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. These are kids that should be learning with their friends. They should be playing on the playground. They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence; and their parents should have the same kind of assurance,” Frey said.
In protest to gun violence, schools nationwide participated in a walkout in response to the Minneapolis shooting. Three St. Louis public schools, Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, and McKinley Classical Leadership Academy, took part in this protest. During an interview with St. Louis Public Radio, Collegiate junior Lilyana Gumenik said that the United States government should put more attention on abolishing gun violence.
“Our government should be focusing on eliminating gun violence instead of the plethora of things that they have been working on. I think that this is such a pressing issue, and it has been affecting our community for years, and it has only gotten worse,” Gumenik said.
