Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said a further 12 children and three adults were injured in the Wednesday morning (late Wednesday night AEST) shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School.
O’Hara said the “coward” shooter fired what he estimated to be “dozens” of rounds from a rifle, shotgun and pistol through the church windows towards children sitting in the pews at the Mass before taking his own life.
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping,” he said.
“The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”
The children who died were aged eight and 10 and their parents had been notified. First responders attempted first aid and worked to rescue some of the children still hiding in the church.
The police chief said the shooter was in his early 20s, did not have an extensive known criminal history and is believed to have acted alone, but did not release the name or information on possible connections to the school.
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press authorities have identified the shooter as Robin Westman.
An emotional Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey condemned the shooting and told the families of the victims he was “so deeply sorry”.
“There are no words that can capture the horror and the evil of this unspeakable act,” an emotional Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.
“Children are dead. There are families that have a deceased child.
“You cannot put into words the gravity, the tragedy or the absolute pain of this situation.”
Michael Simpson said his 10-year-old grandson, Weston Halsne, was nicked by a bullet as he sat by the church windows.
His voice shaking as he left the area around the school, Simpson said the violence during Mass on the third day of school left him wondering whether God was watching over.
“I don’t know where He is,” Simpson said.
Frey said this kind of evil act should never happen but “it happens far too often”.
“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying,” Frey said.
“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.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said on social media that he had been briefed on the shooting.
“I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence,” Waltz wrote on X.
The Minneapolis city government said the shooter had been “contained” after the gunfire at the Annunciation Church’s school, and there was no “active threat” to residents.
Bill Bienemann, who lives a couple of blocks away and has long attended Mass at Annunciation Church, said he heard dozens of shots, perhaps as many as 50, over as long as four minutes.
“I was shocked. I said, ‘There’s no way that could be gunfire’,” he said.
“There was so much of it. It was sporadic.”
Bienemann’s daughter, Alexandra, said she attended the school from kindergarten to year 8, finishing in 2014. After she heard of the shooting, she said she was shaking and crying, and her boss told her to take the day off.
“It breaks my heart, makes me sick to my stomach, knowing that there are people I know who are either injured or maybe even killed,” Alexandra Bienemann said.
“It doesn’t make me feel safe at all in this community that I have been in for so long.”
The school was evacuated, and students’ families later were directed to a “reunification zone” at the school.
Outside, amid a heavy uniformed law enforcement presence, were uniformed children in their dark green shirts or dresses.
Many were trickling out of the school with adults, giving lingering hugs and wiping away tears.
Local, state, county and federal law enforcement officers and agents converged on the area, a leafy residential and commercial neighbourhood about eight kilometres south of downtown Minneapolis.
On Truth Social, US President Donald Trump said he was briefed on the “tragic shooting” and that the White House would continue to monitor it.
The pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school had an all-school Mass scheduled at 8.15am (11.15pm AEST), according to its website.
Monday was the first day of school. Recent social media posts from the school show children smiling at a back-to-school event, holding up summer art projects, playing together and enjoying ice pops.
At a meeting of Democratic officials elsewhere in Minneapolis, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin noted the shooting and “unknown amount of victims”.
The gunfire was the latest in a series of fatal shootings in the city in less than 24 hours.
One person was killed and six others were hurt in a shooting on Tuesday outside a high school in Minneapolis. Hours later, two people died in two other shootings in the city.
Wednesday’s school shooting also followed a spate of hoax calls about purported shootings on at least a dozen US college campuses.
The bogus warnings, sometimes featuring gunshot sounds in the background, prompted universities to issue texts to “run, hide, fight” and frightened students around the nation as the school year began.
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