Minneapolis, August 28 (HS): A devastating school shooting at Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis left two children dead and 17 others injured on Wednesday morning, now being investigated by the FBI as both a domestic terrorism incident and an anti-Catholic hate crime.

Police named the gunman as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who opened fire with multiple weapons — a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol — through the church’s stained-glass windows as children attended morning Mass. He later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A smoke bomb was also found at the scene.

The victims included an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, whose deaths drew global sympathy, including from Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, who said he was “profoundly saddened.” Witnesses described the horror, with one 10-year-old survivor recounting how his injured friend shielded him from bullets by lying on top of him.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara called the attack a “deliberate act of cruelty against innocent children.” FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the federal investigation into hate crime motives, while local police promised to follow the evidence “wherever it leads.”

The attacker’s mother, a former school employee, was linked to the institution, and police recovered a scheduled online note left by Westman, though its contents remain undisclosed.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said President Trump had offered condolences and support, ordering US flags at half-mast. Walz lamented that such tragedies had become “all too common across America,” urging that “no community should endure this again.”

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar