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Two Children Have Been Killed in a Shooting During Mass Marking the First Week of Class for Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis; Two Children Killed, 14 Children and Three Adults Hurt in School Shooting; Shooter Took Own Life After Killing at Least Two Children. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 27, 2025 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[13:34:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Back to our Breaking News out of Minnesota. Officials say that two children are dead. 14 more children and three adults are injured after a shooter opened fire at a Catholic school in Minneapolis.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Police say the shooter was armed with a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol, and fired through the school's windows at children who were sitting, praying during mass. Dozens of shell casings were found at the scene outside of the church. Police say the shooter then took their own life in the parking lot. The shooter was in -- was in their early 20s, we understand. No extensive known criminal history.

Joining us now on the phone is Minnesota State Senator Zaynab Mohamed. She represents the area where the shooting happened. First, Senator, we are so sorry. We see how the community is trying to wrap its arms around all of those who are suffering. Your reaction to this tragedy and what your community is going through.

SEN. ZAYNAB MOHAMED, (D) MINNESOTA STATE SENATE (via telephone): Yeah, thank you so much for covering this.

[13:35:00]

It is absolutely horrifying. I think my community is devastated today. This was the first week of school for the students, the children, the parents, and the teachers as well. And I don't think anything worse could have taken place and so everyone in the community is absolutely devastated this morning.

SANCHEZ: Senator, as the police call this a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping. I wonder if you've learned any new information about why the Annunciation Catholic School specifically was targeted.

MOHAMED (via telephone): You know, I think information is still coming out from law enforcement as they're doing their investigation. They've been swift throughout this morning. What I do know is that school shootings have been happening all across the country. I think this is the number 500 and something school shooting that's happened across the country. And it is absolutely horrifying that parents have to send their kids to school hoping that it's going to be the safest place for their children outside of their home.

We don't have particular details as to why this happened. What we do know is these kids should have been back home this afternoon with their parents, and it's devastating that those parents are mourning today and wondering why and what could have they done.

KEILAR: It is devastating and we're seeing the differing degrees of devastation there from the parents who do not have their kids to the parents who -- and the families who are dealing with children who are in the hospital, to kids who have been through this horrific event. What do you think needs to happen? What's on your mind right now, as you're thinking of what needs to happen going forward?

MOHAMED (via telephone): Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, these kids are the first thing on my mind. Those that are alive and have sort of survived this shooting are going to have to live and grapple with this for the rest of their lives. And it's going to -- it's going to shape them for the rest of their lives, and that's devastating for me. I'm thinking a lot about the parents, who their kids are in the hospital and for them to -- for them to hopefully find some healing as we navigate this horrific act of violence. And obviously, on top of my mind is the gun violence, the epidemic of gun violence across the country that is happening.

There are -- our kids have become victim to far too many times, far too often, and I think it's time that we as adults do something about it. Very often we're talking about, it's time for prayers and thoughts. These kids were in the holiest of places, at church praying. And it's time that adults come together and do something about the epidemic of gun violence across our country.

SANCHEZ: Minnesota State Senator Zaynab Mohamed, we have to leave the conversation there. Please keep us updated with what you were hearing from officials. We're so sorry that we're speaking under these circumstances. And thanks for joining us.

MOHAMED (via telephone): Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Coming up more on what unfolded this morning in Minneapolis, what investigators are learning and how they are conducting this investigation in the hours after the shooting. Stay with CNN.

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[13:42:30]

KEILAR: Back now with our Breaking News, a shooter targeting a Catholic Church in school in Minneapolis. Police say the shooter fired dozens of rounds from outside of the church through the windows into the building during mass, as at least dozens of children were there praying on what was just the third day of the beginning of school. SANCHEZ: And today, officials confirming an eight-year-old and a 10- year-old were killed. 17 others were wounded, 14 of them just kids. Doctors say they're treating victims as young as six years old. Police also say the shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. With us now to discuss CNN National Security Correspondent Josh Campbell and CNN Law Enforcement Analyst Jonathan Wackrow.

Josh, talk to us about what's happening at this point in the investigation.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, authorities have the suspect identified. They're obviously holding the information close to the vest as they try to conduct an investigation. One question that we've seen so often is whether anyone else may have known what was about to transpire. That obviously, we don't know that that is the case here, but that is something that they would be trying to do, interviewing people who were in the shooter's orbit.

And it's worth pointing out as we talk about a motive, all of us have covered so many of these incidents and it's just important for the audience to know that so often none of this will end up making sense, even if we hear what the shooter, him or herself actually says was the reason in some kind of writing or manifesto, some something left behind. Oftentimes what the FBI's behavioral analysts have uncovered in studying these incidents is that it may not be one particular grievance that someone was enacting on with violence.

Oftentimes, a collection of different grievances, that may not make any sense to a rational person. Nevertheless, authorities are going to want to run down exactly what happened, not only to provide closure in this case, but also to learn from that in future cases as well.

And so, that will require a lot of behind-the-scenes work that will be underway. And it's also, we're pointing out that as we've covered these incidents, and I've talked to a lot of the FBI behavioral analysts, the so-called profilers, that are famed for their expertise, is that so often these people will exhibit warning signs well in advance. So one major question will be, did anyone know that this was someone who was on the pathway to violence?

KEILAR: Yeah. Were there signs? And Jonathan, of course, to Josh's point there, it's not going to make sense. That's why we're talking about this as a senseless act, right? This is truly senseless.

[13:45:00]

But there are a lot of people who are going to be watching this as they have watched all of the other shootings that we have covered before who are going to want to see what can we learn about this as a cautionary tale, right? Was there leakage? Were there some things that may be on the local level, on the school level, to local law enforcement and the community that could have maybe been gleaned? With that in mind, I mean, what do you say to people?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, listen, we have to take these incidents and really learn from them, right? And get better and be able to identify those red flags in advance. And really that starts with, right now, understanding what we know from this event of the actual attack dynamics. And I think that just looking at the evidence and everything that has been presented to date, it really speaks to this premeditation and calculated nature of the attack.

So let me break that down in four ways. One, let's just think about the attack location, right? The student body and the faculty were gathered together at a really a known point in time. The attacker knew that he could amplify the number of potential victims just by that -- selecting that target location. The fact that the attacker had multiple weapons really, again, goes to his motivation here, ensuring that he had the capacity, both with the rifle, the shotgun, and the handgun, the capacity to launch the attack even if one of those weapon systems failed.

Then you think about the smoke canisters, right? We don't see that quite often, but that was another element that was added into this really to disorient victims and obscure vision. What -- was it during the attack? Was it to delay potential police response? We don't know. But again, these dynamics need to be reviewed. And really to me, the barricading of the door, trapping victims really speaks to the horrific nature of this attacker's intent. He wanted to prolong this assault again, making sure that victims could not escape.

All of this, Brianna, are what investigators are looking at right now and they're treating this as a premeditated act of violence rather than a spontaneous outburst. So through that, and because of that, they're going to take a series of actions through their investigation to really get to the root cause of why did this happen? And then more importantly, how do we not let this tragedy happen again?

SANCHEZ: Jonathan Wackrow, Josh Campbell, thank you both for the perspective. We have more of our coverage ahead. Before we go, we want you to hear this interview with a fifth grader who survived the shooting. Weston Halsne, just 10-years-old. Listen.

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WESTON HALSNE, 10-YEAR-OLD SHOOTING SURVIVOR: It was like shots fired, and then we kind of like got under the pews. It kind of -- they shot through the stained glass windows, I think. And it was really scary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. What did you do after that?

HALSNE: Well, we waited like 10 to five minutes. I don't really know. And then we -- we went to the gym and then the door is locked, just to make sure he didn't come. And we waited in the gym for more news and everyone was OK. Hurt most people were.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who were your friend Weston?

HALSNE: My friend got hit in the back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he go to the hospital?

HALSNE: Yeah, he went to the hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What went through your mind when you saw that?

HALSNE: I was super scared for him, but I think now he's OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[13:53:15]

SANCHEZ: We're continuing to follow Breaking News today. At least two children killed in a mass shooting this morning at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 17 others were injured, including 14 children. President Trump, we understand, has been briefed on the situation.

KEILAR: Let's go to CNN's Kevin Liptak, who is live for us at the White House. Kevin, we saw the FBI there on scene. How are federal officials responding to this?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And President Trump himself has been on the phone, with the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz. Obviously, this is a notable conversation. The president calling him up pretty shortly after this incident began unfolding. Theirs is a somewhat contentious relationship, and you'll remember back in June, the president actually refused to call Tim Walz when a state lawmaker was assassinated in Minnesota.

But the president wasting very little time today, getting him on the telephone, he said, President Trump did in a Truth Social post that he had been fully briefed on the tragic shooting. He said the FBI quickly responded that they were on the scene. He says that the White House will continue to monitor this terrible situation. And he concludes, please join me in praying for everyone involved.

We also heard from the Vice President J.D. Vance, who is himself a practicing Catholic. Also the father of young children saying that we're at the White House monitoring the situation in Minneapolis. Join us all in praying for the victims. As this was unfolding. on the ground there, we spotted the Attorney General Pam Bondi here at the White House. She has also responded saying that federal agents were on the scene. And she says that my prayers are with everyone involved in this tragedy. Our team will provide updates as we receive them.

[13:55:00]

So you hear there a theme from federal officials saying that they were continuing to monitor the situation, but also extending their prayers for the victims of horrific tragedy that, of course, stands somewhat in contrast with what we heard from the Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, who says that don't -- who said, don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now, that these kids were literally praying.

And so, you do see the contrast start to build there. Now, the president himself doesn't have any events left on his schedule today. He had lunch with the vice president. We understand that he had a meeting scheduled on Gaza. The White House hasn't given any indication that we'll see him speaking about this later today. Obviously, he's been very focused for the last week on street crime across the country. But this situation, obviously, an indication that this other type of crime continues to be a very problematic problem facing the country.

KEILAR: Yeah, certainly. Kevin Liptak, thank you for the latest there from the White House. And ahead on "CNN News Central," we'll have much more on this breaking story, a deadly shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. We'll speak with the father of one of the 17 students who was killed in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Stay with us.

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