A deadly shooting on Wednesday morning occurred at a Minneapolis, Minnesota Catholic school, killing three individuals and injuring 20 others, officials said. Governor Tim Walz decried the violence, calling the attack "horrific."
A U.S. Justice Department official confirmed to Reuters that the shooter was among the dead. Students were in the process of holding morning mass during the attack, local reports said.
Governor Walz took to social media to address the tragedy. “I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence,” he wrote on X, adding that he had already been briefed on the situation.
Police, the FBI, and other federal agencies arrived on the scene in a hurry along with the emergency responders. A member of the school staff, attending to phone calls amidst the panic, reported children being evacuated.
The shooting occurred only two days after school started at Annunciation Catholic School, a private elementary school affiliated with Annunciation Catholic Church in southeast Minneapolis. The school, which has around 395 students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, was hosting an all-school Mass set for 8:15 a.m., its website said.
Former US President Donald Trump also responded, saying on Truth Social that he had been told of the "tragic shooting" and promised that the White House was closely monitoring events.
Annunciation Catholic School, which was established in 1923, had just opened on Monday for the school year. First-day social media posts revealed children in green school uniforms greeting friends, taking selfies, and chaining up their bikes before school.
The violence followed a succession of fatal events in Minneapolis over the course of a single day. Earlier on Tuesday, a single individual was shot dead and six others were wounded outside a local high school. In the evening that night, two more people died in individual shootings around the city.
