Release Date 
08/27/2025

Police respond at Annunciation School after a man killed two children and injured several others Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025 in Minneapolis.

Two children, ages 8 and 10, are dead Wednesday following a shooting at Annunciation Church in south Minneapolis, where students at the Catholic school gathered for a Mass to celebrate the beginning of the school year.

The shooter, a man in his early 20s without an extensive criminal history, appears to have killed himself at the scene, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who gave a news conference near the site.

Another 17 people were injured — 14 of them children. Two of the injured are in critical condition, O’Hara said.

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,” Walz wrote on X.

Children’s Minnesota, a pediatric trauma hospital, said in a statement five children were admitted for care. Hennepin Healthcare, which has Minnesota’s largest emergency department, said it also was caring for patients from the shooting.

As police, FBI and other federal agents and ambulances converged on the school, President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that he was briefed on the “tragic shooting” and that the White House would continue to monitor it.

The school was evacuated, and students’ families later were directed to a “reunification zone” at the school.

Dating to 1923, the pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school had an all-school Mass scheduled at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday morning, 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 number 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 Tuesday afternoon 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 U.S. 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 begins.