A retired FBI special agent said law enforcement’s mission in response to the Minnesota Catholic school shooting was “get to the school as fast as possible and stop the shooter.”

“Officers entered the building not knowing what they would face,” Jason Pack told Fox News Digital.Pack added that “those first minutes are confusion and noise, but training takes over.”

“Secure the scene. Protect the children. Save lives.”

Officials in Minneapolis confirmed that the shooter was dead and took his own life.

Pack said now the investigation shifts to gathering shell casings, reviewing security footage, tracing the firearms and interviewing witnesses.

He added that investigators will also look at the suspect’s past to understand warning signs and whether others were involved.“The main question they are answering, ‘Why would someone do this?’” Pack said.

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin interrupted his party’s summer meeting Wednesday in Minneapolis to announce the mass shooting in the same city.

“I just want to announce some news. I’m not trying to startle or shock any of you. It’s shocking to me. There is an active shooter, here in Minneapolis. Right now, an unknown amount of victims at a church and school,” Martin, who is from Minneapolis himself, told the audience.

“EMS has requested mass casualty responders, if, any of you, doctors, nurses and otherwise, responders, first responders, that could help. It seems to be a fairly significant shooting,” he added.

Police later said two children were killed and 17 other people – including 14 children – were injured in the shooting during a mass at the Annunciation Catholic School.

Nine of the children injured in a shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday were being treated at a hospital, with four requiring surgeries, a hospital official told reporters.

Tom Wyatt, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Hennepin Healthcare said 11 patients were brought to the Hennepin County Medical Center, including two adults and nine children aged between 6 and 14.

There were no fatalities among the 11 patients being treated there as of Wednesday afternoon, he said, adding that several of the children were in critical condition and required surgery.

“I can’t get into specifics, but we are dealing with gunshot wound injuries from apparently a high velocity weapon,” Wyatt said. “And, you know, gunshot wounds can be very problematic because it can involve multiple body systems.”

Wyatt said that he believed other non-critical victims were brought to other area hospitals.

“The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” O’Hara said while addressing reporters.

Additionally, O’Hara said police believe the assailant took his own life. The suspect is believed to have shot through the church windows into the area where the children were praying. He was confirmed to have a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol.

There was a smoke bomb found at the scene.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., are among the Democratic lawmakers sharing their reactions to the shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

“I’m horrified by the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis and closely monitoring the situation,” Schumer wrote on X. “I’m thankful for the first responders on the scene. Students and teachers should not be putting their lives on the line just by going back to school. We must do more to stop gun violence in America.”

Jeffries similarly called the Catholic school shooting “horrifying.”

“Praying for the children, families and first responders during this moment of terror and unimaginable grief,” he wrote on X, in part. “Weapons of war have no place in our neighborhoods, streets or schools.”

Law enforcement officers gather outside the Annunciation Church’s school in response to a reported mass shooting, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

A federal source on the ground in Minneapolis confirmed to Fox News that an estimated 15 to 20 people were injured in a shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School.

Another federal source told Fox News Digital that there were 20 injured, and were “mostly children.”

It was not immediately clear whether there were any fatalities.

A shooting was reported Wednesday at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, according to the state’s governor, Tim Walz.

Walz wrote on X that “I’ve been briefed on a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School” and “I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence.”

The Minneapolis Police Department shared a message from the city of Minneapolis confirming “there is no active threat to the community at this time” and “the shooter is contained.” Sources told Fox 9 that the suspect – who has not been publicly identified – is deceased. source