Well, good afternoon everyone.
Certainly a day and a a news conference
that that no one wants to be at. um
a community behind us, enunciation,
church and school
committed academics, service and
Catholic values
filled with the first days of school
of beautiful children going to learn
those values, share with their teachers
and their classmates. And
instead of that joy and that curiosity
and that learning, they were met with
evil and horror and death.
And we often come to these and say
these unspeakable tragedies or there's
no words for this. There shouldn't be
words for these types of incidents
because they should not happen. And
there's no words that are going to ease
the pain of the families today. on
behalf of all the people of Minnesota,
our deepest sympathies.
A wish that any of these words would
make what you're feeling now better, but
it won't.
A place that's founded on community,
founded on service, founded on family.
I'd like to give special thank you to
the mayor and the team in Minneapolis,
the Minneapolis Police Department,
Henipin County Sheriff's Office,
Minnesota State Patrol, the BCA, so many
agencies, our federal partners in the
FBI, the first responders, and the
heroic work that's happening now as we
speak at multiple medical
locations, including Henipin County
Medical Center, where most of our
children were transported. ed to to
receive the life-saving care. The
thoughts and prayers and the hopes and
the support that we need to give them uh
in this moment too is critical.
speaking with all the people here and
grateful to our federal partners,
Senator Clolobashar speaking early this
morning and uh receiving a call from
from President Trump who was with his
leadership team of the attorney general
and the vice president um expressing
their deep condolences amongst the
horror that happened in an offer to
provide the support to the folks here in
Minnesota of what's needed.
So there's a lot of cameras here and
unfortunately we have been through these
types of things.
They will be gone at some point. All of
you you have to you have to do your
jobs. But what happened here today will
not be gone.
Motans will not step away. We'll stand
with this community. We'll redouble
ourselves to do the best we can to
understand
what we can do to prevent
any parent from having to receive the
calls they received today
from any school dedicated to children
having to respond to a situation that as
we said is unthinkable but that's all
too common not just in Minnesota, but
across this country, it's Minnesota's
day today,
and it's my strongest desire that no
state, no community, no school ever
experiences a day like this. Um, so I
ask the rest of the folks around the
country who are watching, keep us in
your thoughts and prayers, but also keep
us in the thoughts for action, keep us
in the ideas that we can work together.
And it's on these days like this I I
think and I hope we can hold on to it.
Uh we are unified as a community.
Everybody across the country today
is part of the Annunciation Parish and
they're with those families. With that,
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry.
>> Thank you, Governor.
Throughout the morning, we have seen
this extraordinary Minneapolis family
step up in thousands of different ways.
People with strength,
resilience,
compassion, and love for the families
that have been forever impacted by this
heinous act.
We want to make sure that we're doing
everything possible for them right now.
And I want to give a special thank you
and we are so grateful uh to all of the
faculty and the teachers at enunciation.
The way that they acted during severe
threat and danger was nothing short of
heroic.
This is a tragic and horrible event that
would ever should never occur. And it
would have been all the more tragic and
horrible had they not stepped in. At
times perhaps put themselves in danger
to protect others. As horrible as this
has been, it could have been far worse.
I'm grateful for our law enforcement
partners, our police officers in the
Minneapolis Police Department and other
law enforcement agencies well beyond
that step up that answered the call to
make sure that they were running towards
danger when so many of the rest of us
would have run in the other direction.
Thank you. We are so appreciative of
your service. uh to principal Dbor and
your whole team.
The ethic that you have showed,
the love that you've shown,
it's flatout incredible. And at the same
time,
look, we need to be doing more than
talking. It it it can't just be words.
There needs to be action. And when we
have seen school shooting after school
shooting, when we have seen churches get
shot up by horrible actors, I think the
impetus has to be on all of us as
leaders to do a whole lot more, to
recognize that we've got more guns in
this country than we have people.
And it's on all of us to recognize the
truth and the reality that we can't just
say that this shouldn't happen again and
then allow it to happen again and again
beyond that. It's on all of us.
And I have heard about a whole lot of
hate that's being directed at our trans
community.
Anybody
who is using this as an using this as an
opportunity to villainize our trans
community or any other community out
there has lost their sense of common
humanity.
We should not be operating out of a
place of hate for anyone. We should be
operating from a place of love for our
kids.
Kids died today.
This needs to be about them.
This needs to be wrapping our arms
around these families with every bit of
love that we can possibly show.
And I know that our Minneapolis family
and well beyond is prepared to do
exactly that. And so my message to
everyone out there is again,
these families are experiencing some
acute pain right now, but don't just
think of these as somebody else's kids.
Think of your own.
Let's make sure that we're acting now to
not just say it's never happening again,
but ensure it doesn't.
our chief of police who's been working
tirelessly throughout the day along with
again a number of different law
enforcement agencies, investigators,
federal partners, state partners. Um,
thank you, Senator Clolobashar, for
being here. Uh, been working tirelessly
and I'd like to invite him up to give
some more of the details that uh that
have come up. Chief,
>> my name is Brian O'Hara. B R I A N O
apostrophe H A R A. I am the Minneapolis
Police Chief.
Good afternoon and thank you all for
your patience as we continue to gather
the facts in this investigation
into this truly unthinkable tragedy that
happened here earlier today.
I want to make sure that we are
providing the most accurate information
possible, particularly as we speak
around our victims.
At this point, we know we have a total
of 19 victims from this tragedy.
Two were young children, ages eight and
10, that were sitting in the pews at
mass when they were shot and killed.
They were pronounced deceased on the
scene.
There were another 14 children between
the ages of six and 15 that were injured
by gunfire.
There were also three adults in their
80s that were parishioners here
attending mass that were also shot in
this incident.
The families of all of the children that
have been affected have been notified.
The coward that shot these victims took
his own life in the rear of the church.
That coward has been identified as
23-year-old Robin Westman. No prior
criminal history.
As to the weapons used to perpetrate
this horrific attack, there was a rifle,
a shotgun, and a pistol.
All three had been lawfully purchased by
the shooter.
At this stage, we believe that the
shooter had acted alone. There is no
indication of other suspects directly
involved in carrying out this attack.
Our investigators are working with other
agencies in the process of executing
four search warrants. One is for the
church itself where this crime occurred.
The other three are residents residences
nearby in the metro that are related to
this shooter.
Additional firearms
uh are being recovered from those three
residential locations as we speak.
We're also aware of a manifesto that the
shooter had timed to be released on
YouTube.
This manifesto appeared to show him at
the scene and included some disturbing
writings.
That content has since been taken down
with the assistance of the FBI and it
now remains under active review by our
investigators.
We know this community is reeling
and is in pain.
I want to ensure everyone in our
community, this parish, all of the
families affected, and all of our
residents, that all of law enforcement
collectively, local law enforcement and
our county, our state, and all of our
federal law enforcement partners have
been here. and we are all working
tirelessly
to uncover the full scope of what
happened to try and identify a motive
why it happened and whether there are
any other further details.
We will continue to share updates as the
in investigation progresses and remain
committed to being as transparent as
possible while protecting the integrity
of this investigation.
In a moment, I will take some questions
that I am able to answer. But first, I
want to bring up the the principal of
Annunciation School, Matt De Boyce, as
well as uh after him, the Archbishop,
our Archbishop, Bernard Hebda. So,
principal,
>> good afternoon, everyone. To any of our
students and families and staff watching
right now, I love you. You're so brave
and I'm so sorry this happened to us
today.
Within seconds of this situation
beginning, our teachers were heroes.
Children were ducked down.
Adults were protecting children. Older
children were protecting younger
children. And as we heard earlier, it
could have been significantly worse
without their heroic action.
This is a nightmare. But we call our
staff the dream team. And we will
recover from this. We will rebuild from
this. When we planned planned for this
school year, we intentionally chose a
theme from the prophet Jeremiah chapter
29, a future filled with hope. There's
nothing about today that can fill us
with hope.
We as a community have a responsibility
to make sure that no child, no parent,
no teacher ever has to experience what
we've experienced today, ever again. I
need everybody to commit those words to
your speech patterns never again.
We lost two angels today. And please
continue to pray for those still
receiving care.
We can't change the past, but we can do
something about the future.
There's an African proverb that says,
"When you pray, move your feet." So I
beg you, I ask you to please pray, but
don't stop with your words. Let's make a
difference and support this community,
these children, these families, these
teachers. Never again can we let this
happen. I love you, Annunciation family.
We're with you and we will be stronger
when this is done.
Archbishop Hebda will be coming next.
Thank you, Principal Dbor. I'm so
grateful that Mayor Fry and the chief uh
both mentioned how valiant you and your
staff were. I'm so grateful to the
pastor here at Annunciation, Father
Dennis Zarin, for the deacon, Deacon
Kevin Connealy, also were heroic in this
time. But how sad it is for sure, not
only for the families who are directly
involved, but indeed for families
everywhere who feel the threat that
comes from an event, a tragedy like
today's. I would never want to correct a
principal, but principal divorce said it
wasn't so clear where would be the
source of hope. And brothers and
sisters, we have to be men and women of
hope. already today I've been receiving
messages from all over our country uh
promising prayers and I I think it's the
prayers of the feet as well principle
that is for me is a source of hope just
as we see families stepping forward to
help those who have been impacted by
this terrible tragedy very grateful that
principal Dbor spoke about prayer uh
certainly that uh the bell in a Catholic
church is always a call to prayer and so
it's a reminder for us uh for sure to be
praying and we have to recognize that
it's uh through prayer and through that
prayer of the feet through that action
that we can indeed make a difference.
That has to be the source of our hope. I
was particularly pleased today to
receive a message from Pope Leo. If
you'd bear with me, I' I'd like to share
that with you.
It comes directly from Cardinal Proin,
who's the Secretary of State, and it
reads like this. His holiness Pope Leo I
14th was profoundly saddened to learn of
the loss of life and injuries following
the shooting that took place at
Enunciation Church in Minneapolis. And
he sends his heartfelt condolences and
the assurance of spiritual closeness to
all those affected by this terrible
tragedy, especially the families now
grieving the loss of a child. while
commending the souls of the deceased
children to the love of Almighty God.
His holiness prays for the wounded as
well as the first responders, medical
personnel and clergy who are caring for
them and their loved ones. At this
extremely difficult time, the Holy
Father imparts to the enunciation
Catholic school community, the arch
dascese of St. Paul Minneapolis and the
people of the greater Twin Cities
metropolitan area his apostolic blessing
as a pledge of peace, fortitude and
consolation in the Lord Jesus. My
brothers and sisters, that gives me some
hope. We know that the Holy Father, Pope
Leo, did his uh hospital training right
here in Minneapolis. So, he knows our
community and he's been reminding uh
anybody visiting from Minnesota that he
spent some time here. We're very
grateful for his blessing. But I, like
those who have spoken before, um ask
that you would continue to think uh look
for those ways of supporting those who
have been impacted today, not only with
your prayers, but also with your action.
Thank you. And chief, I now turn this
back to you for your questions.
Thank you, Archbishop.
>> Thank you, Archbishop. Um, as I
mentioned, obviously the investigation
continues in its preliminary stages. I
will take some questions now. Uh, and
additionally, we will let you know when
we can provide uh some updated
information.
>> How are the injured students doing? What
are their conditions at this point?
>> The question uh from Matt was how are
the injured students doing? Uh I believe
all of them have their parents with them
now. Uh and they are all expected to
survive. All of the remaining victims
are expected to survive. There is a
range of injuries. However,
>> Chief, you said the weapons were
acquired legally. Do we know when and
where they were acquired?
>> Uh I can tell you they were purchased
recently.
>> Chief, can you tell us anything more
about
reports that the shooter's mother was
employed here at Can you confirm that as
well?
>> Okay. So, the question was on a possible
motive uh and a relationship to the
church or to the school. Uh I cannot uh
I have no information to share on a
motive other than saying again uh that
there was some sort of manifesto that
was time to come out on YouTube. It's
been taken down and our investigators
are going through that to try and
develop a motive from that.
Additionally, there are these three
search warrants happening in residential
locations and we may very well, you
know, find more information or writings
that could give some sense to that, but
we don't have that now. And I cannot
confirm uh a relationship between the
suspect or his family and this church at
this time, but that's obviously
something we're looking very closely at.
>> Can you confirm at this point whether it
was in fact by the suspect or you
believe at this point that it is in fact
And second question,
>> what was by the suspect?
>> The manifesto that you've been talking
about.
>> Yep. So, uh, the question was about the
manifesto. We do believe it was by the
suspect. Yes.
>> And we understand that we've seen some
documents about the name change that
somebody with the same name as the
suspect has filed for a few years ago.
Do you believe this to be the same
person was in fact born with a different
name at this point? And can you speak a
little bit more?
suspect and he had had a name change at
some point in the past. I cannot confirm
that other than confirming the identity,
the name that I gave you, the age that
is the suspect. That's the person that
we believe has has caused this.
>> Chief, you mentioned these videos posted
on YouTube seemingly scheduled to be
posted right after the shooting. Is
there anything that the suspect posted
days prior, months prior that could shed
any light on their mindset?
>> Yep. So the question was uh we mentioned
that the YouTube videos were scheduled
to be posted. Is there anything else in
social media that may uh shed some light
into this? We do not have information on
that at this time that I'm uh able to
share. However, our investigators and
and our law enforcement partners are
definitely looking at that.
>> About how many children and parishioners
were in the church when
>> So the question was how many children
and parishioners uh were in the church
when this happened? This was towards the
beginning of mass. So, some of the
children were already filed into the
church and were seated. Others were
coming in. Um, I've I've heard
estimates, but we will we will release a
more definitive number.
>> Chief, um, Minneapolis police officers
in
yesterday.
>> Yep.
>> Yep. Uh Sue's question was uh resources
for Minneapolis police due to the other
challenges we've had the last 24 hours.
Obviously this has been the most
difficult.
The dozens of officers that responded to
this scene. Um many of them are deeply
traumatized by what they saw as are
obviously all of the children, all of
the staff members, uh Father Dennis,
everyone who was at mass this morning.
Um
so obviously that that has been our
number one priority is to care for the
health and wellness of the officers and
that responded here. Additionally
obviously we have responded to other
challenging situations uh and other acts
of violence. I can say in regard to the
shooting that happened outside of the
high school uh yesterday uh we have
arrested two people uh for assisting in
that shooting. We have not gotten the
shooter yet, but we believe we have two
people under arrest that were present
with the shooter when that happened, and
we're making significant progress. Um,
there was an additional arrest at a
homicide last night that happened on the
2700 block of 3rd Avenue South. Uh, that
person has not uh been booked
specifically for being responsible for
that murder, but we believe uh we
believe that is the person who caused
that. So first time you've ever had
>> No, no, unfortunately not. Y
>> a lot of politicians here and others can
never
suggest where we start to make sure it
doesn't ever happen again.
>> Yeah. So the question was where do we
start uh to make sure this doesn't
happen again? Um I I don't have an
answer for that at this time.
>> Maybe it already is. I'm not sure my
information as a hate crime against
Catholics. I'm asking you perhaps is
this investigation that you have open
comment on that.
>> So the question is is this an
investigation into a hate crime against
Catholics? Um we don't have a motive at
this time. Obviously, we're open to any
possibilities at all, but we don't have
a motive or anything to suggest that
>> you know if there is any more safety,
any more protective measures are
implemented at other Catholic schools
throughout the Twin Cities or churches.
Um, I'm sure there are masses going
around right now this afternoon. Yeah,
it's just a week out from or a few days
before the start of school.
>> Yeah. So, the question is the concern
for other churches, other schools around
the metro. Um, unfortunately, this is
something that our community has been
dealing with for some time. Um, you
know, the threat of active shooters, the
threat of hate crimes at houses of
worship, unfortunately, is not something
new here. Uh, and of course, our our
precinct inspectors, our crime
prevention specialists are available to
work with both houses of worship,
churches, and schools uh that that that
do reach out to assist in any additional
security measures or advice that we can
we can offer them. question about that
to follow up. Are you aware this is the
first time that actually a Catholic mass
has been targeted and there have been
victims inside a Catholic church during
mass
>> in the Twin Cities? Not
>> in the Twin Cities.
>> I'm unaware of any other.
>> Yeah. From from the arch. The question
was this the first time that there's
been attack of Catholics at mass in the
Twin Cities area. Uh the archbishop is
unaware of any other attack.
>> Domestic terrorism. Are you also
tracking this?
>> Um, the question was, uh, is it being
investigated by the FBI?
>> The FBI director saying this is domestic
terrorism. Is that what you're tracking?
>> Um, well, the FBI is here with us and
has been a part of uh this entire
investigation as well as the ATF, other
law enforcement. Uh, it's being led
right now by the Minneapolis Police
Department, and we are looking at
obviously any possibilities from
wherever the evidence will lead us. uh
from from what we recover. Absolutely.
>> Thank you all again so much for your
time today, for your support. Thank you.