source: BBC
Two children, aged 8 and 10, were killed and 17 people were injured when an attacker fired through the windows of a Minneapolis Catholic church at people celebrating Mass, police said.
Annunciation Church, which also houses a school, was filled with students when the shooting happened on Wednesday. Of the 17 injured victims, 14 are children and all are expected to survive.
The attacker, 23-year-old Robin Westman, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene and had no “significant criminal history”, authorities said.
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters.
“The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” he added.
The motive for the shooting is still unknown. It is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime against Catholics, FBI Director Kash Patel said.
Police began receiving calls of a shooting just before 08:00 local time (14:00BST) on Wednesday.
The attacker approached the side of the building and fired dozens of shots through the church windows using three firearms – a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. Police also found a smoke bomb at the scene.
Officials are investigating if he shot inside the building or if all the shots came from outside the church, noting that no casings from bullets were found inside.
“I could hear ‘boom, boom, boom’,” P.J Mudd, who lives close to the church and was working from home on Wednesday morning, told the Wall Street Journal. “It suddenly dawned on me – it was a shooting.”
He then ran to the church where he saw three magazine cartridges on the ground.
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