We’re starting to get some firsthand reports on what happened in the moments following the Wednesday morning massacre at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, and, although the scene was said to be “chaotic,” it was also apparently a scene of great kindness, comfort, and community.
As RedState previously reported, law enforcement officials have identified the gunman in today’s massacre as 23-year-old Robin/Robert Westman. Westman, a biological male who identified as a woman and legally changed his name to the more feminine “Robin,” reportedly posted a video of himself thumbing through his hand-written manifesto and displaying his cache of weapons before carrying out his evil plot.
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The schoolchildren from Annunciation Catholic School were gathering in the parish church for a Mass celebrating the beginning of a new school year when the shooting began. Westman may have propped wooden planks up against the outside of some church doors to prevent those inside from escaping; he then shot up the church from the outside, blindly spraying bullets through church windows.
Pat Scallen, a man who lives nearby the site of the shooting and is an Annunciation parishioner, told Fox News’ Gillian Turner what he saw when he approached the scene shortly after the shooting stopped. Scallen says he arrived at the front of the church just as the schoolchildren were fleeing the gunshots, and he immediately sprang into action.
And I right away focused on two young girls that had been pretty seriously hurt, and then another boy that had — looked like was brandished on his arm. And I kind of hung with them until the EMTs came, because they were obviously very distressed, and I was worried about their physical condition, and held the one girl’s hand.
She wanted me to do that. And they did — they asked for their mom. And I reassured them and gave them comfort. But it was a terrible scene.
Soon after the rampage ended, images began springing up online of distraught parents arriving at the church, desperate to find and hug their children. The heart wrenching news that two children were killed and many others injured has undoubtedly shaken the Catholic community, but Scallen says the tragedy won’t destroy it: “Well, clearly, we’re in the moment of shock and distress. And that will — it will take a while to heal. And this will never go away for the people that were there and they will always live with it. But, remember, this is a community of faith and strength.”
During an afternoon press conference, Matthew DeBoer, the principal of Annunciation Catholic School, confirmed the deaths of “two angels” who were aged 8 and 10. “Please pray, and don’t stop with your words,” pleaded DeBoer. “This can never, ever happen again.” The principal also praised the older school children who bravely protected the younger ones as the gunfire rang out.
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Law enforcement is not yet speculating on Westman’s motive for carrying out the massacre, but it has emerged that the troubled young man was once a student at Annunciation and was pictured in the school’s 2017 yearbook. The gunman’s mother had previously worked at the church, according to social media posts.
As for Pat Scallen, he doesn’t regret being there in the aftermath of the tragedy, saying, “I would have wanted somebody there with my kids. I did not want those kids to be alone for any — for one single minute.”
