School shooting in Minneapolis leaves 2 children dead and 17 injured

Two children aged eight and 10 have been killed and 17 people injured when a gunman opened fire on schoolchildren attending Mass at a Catholic school in the United States, Al Jazeera writes.

As noted, all the children being treated are expected to survive their injuries.

Local authorities have not yet discerned a motive for the attack and said the shooter – armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol – took his own life and appears to have acted alone. The FBI said that it is probing the attack as a potential act of terrorism. Police said the assailant, identified as Robin Westman, was in his 20s and did not appear to have had an extensive criminal history.

Kash Patel, the Trump-appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has said that the agency is probing the attack as a possible hate crime targeting Catholics.

“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a news conference. “The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and U.S. President Donald Trump offered condolences to the families of the victims. Pope Leo XIV described the incident as a “terrible tragedy” and said he is praying for the victims.

The attack is the 146th such attack of its type since January.