The shooting at Minneapolis‘s Annunciation Catholic School, which has reportedly left two children dead and at least 17 victims injured, follows a string of three separate deadly shootings in Minnesota’s most populous city.
On Wednesday morning, a gunman shot dozens of rounds through the window of Annunciation Church in Minneapolis. The shooter was later found dead in the parking lot from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he is grateful for the community’s law enforcement officers and that they will be working “tirelessly” following the shooting.
“You cannot put into words the gravity, the tragedy, or the absolute pain of this situation,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a Wednesday press conference. “I’m so deeply saddened, and I’m so sorry to the families that I know are suffering right now. My ask is, to everyone, stand by them.”
TWO CHILDREN DEAD AND 17 INJURED AFTER SHOOTING AT MINNEAPOLIS ANNUNCIATION CHURCH
Six hours before the Catholic school tragedy, one man was killed and another was injured in a late-night shooting 6 miles north of the school on the corner of 8th Street and Hennepin Avenue, according to the Minnesota Star-Tribune. The shooter in that incident fled the scene.
On Tuesday afternoon, there was a shooting near a high school that killed one person and injured six others. The gunman used a high-velocity .223 rifle and has not been apprehended. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara called the incident, which occurred around 1:30 p.m., “deeply disturbing.”
“This is the middle of the day, we are standing literally right next to a high school, and this type of weapon, it’s more for a weapon of war than something to be on the street here,” O’Hara said in a local Fox interview regarding the Tuesday afternoon shooting. “The damage that was done to the bodies of some of these victims is unspeakable.”
Later Tuesday night, a shooting on 3rd Avenue in Minneapolis killed one man and likely injured another, who was brought to a different hospital with gunshot wounds. Minneapolis Police Department personnel said it was unknown if this incident or the early Wednesday morning downtown shooting were related to the shooting earlier on Tuesday afternoon outside of the Jesuit school.
O’Hara said in a Wednesday morning press conference that the Annunciation Church incident was not connected to any of the other shootings this week.
This year, there have been 36 non-negligent homicide victims in Minneapolis as of Tuesday, according to the city government’s published crime statistics. This compares to 49 non-negligent homicides reported as of the same time last year, a 26.5% decrease since last year at this time.
KEN MARTIN CANCELS REMAINDER OF SUMMER DNC MEETING IN MINNEAPOLIS AFTER ANNUNCIATION CHURCH SHOOTING
Minneapolis’s numbers are also down this year in terms of gun violence, according to the city’s published crime statistics. This year, there have been 175 gunshot wound victims as of Tuesday, and last year to date, there were 249 gunshot wound victims across the city, marking a 29.7% decrease since last year.
Minnesota was, however, in the news for gun violence earlier this summer, when two state lawmakers were murdered, allegedly by Vance Boelter, and two others were injured in Brooklyn Park and Champlin, which are several miles outside of Minneapolis, but still located within the Twin Cities metropolitan area.