A gunman opened fire Wednesday on school children attending church in Minneapolis, killing two pupils and wounding 17 people, police said, in the country’s latest violent tragedy.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told a media briefing that the shooter, in his early twenties, sprayed bullets into the Annunciation Church as dozens of students were at Mass to celebrate their first week back to school.
The church sits next to an affiliated school in the south of the city, the largest in the state of Minnesota.
“Two young children, ages eight and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews,” O’Hara said, adding that 17 others were injured, including 14 children.
Two were in critical condition, he said.