BREAKING: Shooting at Minneapolis Catholic School, Numerous Victims Reported

In a turn that happens way too often for my own peace of mind, reports broke a short time ago about a shooting in Minneapolis. The target was Annunciation Church and Catholic School there, and, well, it’s not looking particularly good.

From Fox 9 in Minneapolis:

A shooting has been reported at Annunciation Church and Catholic School in Minneapolis. FOX 9 sources confirm the suspect is dead and authorities say there is no active threat to the community.

The church and school are on the 500 block of West 54th Street in south Minneapolis, near the intersection of 54th and Lyndale.

The school is for kindergarten through eighth-graders. They started school on Monday. They have mass at 8:15 a.m. on Wednesdays, and students were reportedly in mass at the time of the shooting.

FOX 9 has crews at the scene. This is a developing story. Live updates can be found below.

Richfield PD: 20 victims reported

9;53 a.m.: The Richfiled Police Department, which neighbors Minneapolis, is reporting there are 20 victims. 

“A man dressed in all black and armed with a rifle was reported at the scene,” the Richfield PD said.

President Donald Trump and Gov. Tim Walz have been notified and are monitoring the situation. The ATF and FBI have responded and the shooter has apparently been “contained,” whatever exactly that means.

As you can see, 8:15 Central is really just a couple of hours ago. Right now, we’re likely to hear a lot of contradictory information in the next few hours. Victim counts may go up or down, information about the attacker and his weapon may swing back and forth, and anything is possible. There’s a reason why many institute a 72-hour rule before discussing an incident like this. Right now, it’s chaotic.

We should probably understand that the term “victim” here is rather vague. We don’t know if these are people who sprained their ankles trying to escape or if they’re dead. I much prefer the former to the latter, to be sure, but we simply don’t know.

The news broke about an hour ago of this writing, so that’s not surprising.

What we do know is that this is something that never should have happened. In the coming days and weeks, we will likely hear a whole lot about what just transpired as people try to use it for their political advantage one way or another.

Right now, all I can do is think about those kids, packed in for mass, worshipping God, and suddenly having their world upended forever. Even those who survived unscathed physically will have problems that need to be dealt with. I’d rather keep politics out of things until we actually know something, and preferably even after that.

Unfortunately, that’s not going to be allowed to happen.

So, for now, I’ll offer up my prayers for all those involved and their families. I’ll pray for wisdom for our elected officials, and pray that we can somehow finally put a stop to this perverse desire some people have to murder innocent people for no particular reason.

I’ll try to continue monitoring the situation.

Update: From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

9:45 a.m. – An Annunciation parent who was sitting in the back pew at the 8:15 a.m. Mass said students were packed into the pews when a shooter opened fire outside the building with some kind of semiautomatic weapon.

“He just pepper-sprayed through the stained-glass windows into the building, 50 to 100 shots,” said the parent, who did not want his name used. “He killed two kids.”

“This is terrible,” he said. ”This is evil. I don’t know how you defend against this.”

— Reid Forgrave

From Amy Swearer of The Heritage Foundation:

From @StarTribune, quoting a parent at the mass. Assuming this is true, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn (1) that the gunman either couldn’t access the inside or was aware of other security measures, and (2) he had a personal connection to the school to know when mass was held. pic.twitter.com/Mgz0KPC7X1

— Amy Swearer (@AmySwearer) August 27, 2025

This is just her speculation, which she plainly states in her next post on X, but I think she’s likely right, at least with regard to the first point. The second is very possible, too, but I suspect there may have been another way to get the information.

Update 2: CNN is being CNN again:

WATCH: CNN’s Evan Perez LIES about how semi-automatic rifles work.

Perez says that a semi-automatic rifle can “shoot dozens of bullets in just one trigger pull.”

That is factually inaccurate. A semi-automatic rifle fires one bullet per pull of the trigger.

False anti-gun fear… pic.twitter.com/W6VWnOEhoh

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 27, 2025

No, they don’t.

Either Perez knows they don’t, in which case she’s lying, or she doesn’t know it, in which case she should keep her mouth shut on topics she knows she doesn’t know much about.

What’s worse is that a lot of people will think she’s being both honest and accurate, so we’ll have to deal with this one going forward.

Update 3: It looks like two children are confirmed dead. The gunman is also dead.