Witnesses describe the shooting of the Catholic School of Minneapolis

Witnesses of a mass shooting in the American state of Minneapolis described the “terrifying” scenes after an attacker opened fire on a church in which the children celebrated mass on Wednesday morning.

A young boy described to be protected by a friend who was struck himself.

Two children were killed and 17 others injured in an incident that the FBI treats as an anti-Catholic hatred crime.

The attacker, appointed Robin Westman, 23, died on the scene of a self-inflicted ball injury. The authorities have not yet given suspected reason.

Westman was a former student of the school adjacent to the church, CNN reported. The striker’s mother previously worked in the establishment, according to a school newsletter from 2016.

The young survivor, Weston Halsne, 10, explained to the CBS WCCO affiliation station that his friend saved him from the balls by lying on him.

“I was like two seats in the stained glass,” he said. “My friend, Victor, saved me, because he lying on me, but he was touched.”

He continued: “My friend was struck in his back, he went to the hospital … I was super frightened for him but I think now he’s fine.”

Weston said he and his classmates were well trained in what to do in a shooting situation – but not in the environment in which they found themselves. “We practice it every month, but not in church, only in school,” he said.

The suspect Westman would have approached the side of the Annunciation church, which also houses a school, and fired dozens of blows through the windows using three firearms. The police also found a smoked bomb on the scene.

The authorities investigate if the shots were taken from the inside of the building or outside, noting that no ball envelope was found inside.

Residents described their confusion when they heard the shots ring. A man, Mike Garrity, told NBC News that he thought it was the sound of a nail pistol on a nearby construction site.

Bill Bienemann, who lives on two houses, spoke to journalists near the stage and recalled the moment: “I said that there was no way that it could be shots because there are so much.”

Another local resident, PJ Mudd, who worked at home on Wednesday morning, told Wall Street Journal that he had heard three booms. “It suddenly reported to me – it was a shooting.”

Mr. Mudd then ran to the church, where he saw three magazine cartridges on the ground.

Witnesses of which Mr. Garrity also described the horrible spectacle of children emerging from the church covered with blood.

Another neighbor, Patrick Scallen, told the BBC that he had seen three children fleeing the building – one of them a girl with a head injury.

“She kept saying:” Please, stretch my hand, don’t leave me “, and I said that I was not going anywhere.”

A nanny who works nearby said that she was relieved to see children leaving the building unscathed, but was disrupted by “looks at their faces alone”.

“You see videos online, but that does not compare to see it and witness it in person,” Madee Brandt told NBC. “It was tough … it’s terrifying.”

Hundreds of people attended a vigil for the victims on Wednesday evening in another neighboring school.

Those who were injured during the shooting should recover, and some have already been released from the hospital.

A mother told CNN that she had been relieved that her children were not injured in the incident, but that she had “feelings so mixed at the moment”.

Carla Maldonado spoke of being “incredibly sad and angry that it must be one thing in any school”. She continued saying: “The lives that were lost (are) too much. One is too much. It’s not good.”

The governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, offered a similar feeling, saying that the situation was “too common – not only in Minnesota, but across the country”.

Walz said US President Donald Trump and his team had expressed their “deep condolences” and offered help.

Trump later said that the American flag would be piloted in half-mast in the White House to show respect for the victims.

Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, was one of those who paid tribute to the young victims, saying that he was “deeply saddened” by the attack.

Giving updates at a press conference on Wednesday, Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said that the striker did not have “extensive known criminal history” and had acted alone.

Police said they had found a “manifesto” that Westman pulled to publish on YouTube at the time of the shooting. The FBI helped the civil servants and killed it.

The name of Westman was legally changed from Robert to Robin in 2020, according to files from the Minnesota court. In the application, the judge wrote: “The minor child identifies himself as a woman and wants his name to reflect this identification.”