Minneapolis school shooting: Fifth grader recounts what happened in church, ‘my friend got hit in the back’

Warning: Distressing details.A 10-year-old boy has given a gut-wrenching account after surviving a devastating shooting in a Minneapolis church that claimed the lives of two children.

Two children have died after a gunman fired “dozens of rounds” through the windows of a church in Minnesota while schoolchildren were in prayer. The shooting occurred at 8.30am local time, on the first day of the school year, as students attended mass in the city’s south.

Police confirmed the victims were eight and ten years old, with a further 17 people injured, 14 of them children, and three adults in their 80s. Seven children reportedly remain in critical condition.

Fifth grader recounts hero friend

A 10-year-old boy who survived, Weston Halsne, told NBC News his friend laid on top of him to shield him as gunfire erupted:

“My friend got hit in the back,” he said.

“The first one, I was like, ‘What is that?’ I thought it was just something, and then when I heard it again, I just ran on the pew, and then I covered my head,” he said.

“My friend Victor, like saved me though, because he laid on top of me, but he got hit.”

He called his friend “really brave,” describing the situation as “super scary.”

“I hope he is good in the hospital.”

The boy added he was relieved to hug his mother afterwards: “I was super happy.”

When asked whether emergency drills were undertaken: “We practise them every month, but we’ve never practised in the church though, only school” he said.

The gunman, described by police as a man in his twenties, took his own life at the scene after acting alone. FBI director Kash Patal stated the attack was being investigated as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey addressed reporters, saying, “children are dead” in the aftermath of the shooting at a church linked to Annunciation Catholic School.

“You cannot put into words the gravity, tragedy, or absolute pain of this moment,” he added.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara explained the gunman approached from outside and began firing a rifle through the windows towards children seated in the pews during Mass.

He added that the shooter used a rifle, shotgun, and pistol, firing “in the dozens”.

He also said a “smoke bomb” described as similar to a firework was also removed from the scene.

“The dozens of officers that responded to the scene, many of them are deeply traumatised by what they saw, as are obviously all of the children,” O’Hara said.

Children described diving under pews as bullets shattered the stained glass.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar told MSNBC she had spoken to an employee whose three children were at the school. She recounted:

“These kids are doing an all-school mass and had to watch several of her friends get shot — one in the back, one in the neck,” Ms Klobuchar said.

“Her daughter ended up being the one to tell one of the dads of one of the other kids that his daughter had been shot.”

A parent inside the church with his son, Shea McAdaragh, recalled the chilling silence:

“Somebody asked me if there was a bunch of screaming going on. I remember no screaming. I remember gunshots and silence,” he said.

He praised an officer who “immediately ran toward the direction of the shooter,” noting, “he was just a normal, every day beat cop. No special equipment, no special helmet or anything and he just immediately ran toward the direction of the shooter. And that’s when I knew I was safe, the children were safe, and we were able to start triaging the kids.”