AFTER shots rang out in Annunciation Church on Wednesday, an unsettling stillness filled the area for a moment.
The students had just started their first week of Catholic school, with the year’s theme titled: “future filled with hope.”
Families were seen outside crying as they waited for their children to come out[/caption]
Police and medical teams were praised for their response to the shooting[/caption]
Now, two students are dead, and more than a dozen are wounded.
Children, ranging from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, filed in for their beginning-of-the-year Mass that was scheduled to begin at 8:15.
By 8:30, emergency crews were called for a mass casualty event.
The students were in the pews at the time of the shooting as gunman Robin Westman shot right through the church’s stained glass windows, hitting over a dozen children.
“We had just sat back down after Psalms were read,” Javen Willis, a 13-year-old student, told NBC News.
“We were just waiting, honestly, for the next part of the Mass to continue. And all I hear is, ‘Pow, pow pow.’”
Although parent Shea McAdaragh didn’t see a shooter when he looked around, he noticed holes in the window as light peeked through, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
That’s when he realized that Westman was outside, shooting rounds off toward the church.
He mentioned the quiet, as the gunman reloaded and then proceeded to empty their clip right into the building.
That’s when he yelled at everyone to get down.
Staffers pushed the students under pews in an effort to protect them. Younger students were shielded by older ones.
Some ran down into the basement, as the principal reportedly ran and locked the door.
But then it stopped. Westman had committed suicide with a gun outside in the parking lot.
A police officer burst through the door, McAdaragh said, and asked where the shooter was.
Outside, multiple neighbors knew something was wrong.
Inside, McAdaragh told those to get up.
“I said ‘You guys can get up,’ and I knew some kids weren’t going to get up,” he said, according to the Star Tribune.
He told the outlet that he had ran through the pews while calling his child’s name, and checked the two dead students to see if they were his son.
Pat Scallen, a neighbor to the school who ran to the scene after hearing gunfire, mentioned that, following the deafening silence, mayhem ensued.
“It was eerily quiet. And then I immediately turned and ran to the front of the church, and right at that time everyone was coming out,” he said on Good Morning America.
“It was chaotic.”
A little girl, shot in the head, asked Scallen to hold her hand.
“I did,” he said.
Many kids just wanted their mom and dads.
“I just, I sat them down and just tried to keep them calm, and I was watching them close to see if there’d be any change in their status.”
Another neighbor, PJ Mudd, told the Wall Street Journal that after hearing noise, “It suddenly dawned on me.”
“It was a shooting.”
Multiple witnesses outside said that students came out covered in blood, according to reports.
Hordes of first responders went to the scene, attempting to save as many as they could.
“We need medical,” one official said on the dispatch.
“Bring all the gauze that you have.”
Seventeen were injured — 14 of those were children aged between 6 and 15 years old, and the other three were churchgoers in their 80s.
It is still unclear why gunman Westman committed the heinous crime.
Robin Westman, 23, was identified as the shooter[/caption]
Law enforcement rushed to the scene in an effort to save the young victims[/caption]
