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Police: Two Children Killed, 14 Children & 3 Adults Injured; Police: Shooter Took His Own Life After Killing At Least 2 Kids; Hospital Gives Update On Victims From Catholic School Shooting; Police: "This Was A Deliberate Act Of Violence Against Children". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 27, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

CHIEF BRIAN O'HARA, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: Shooting through the windows, he struck children and worshipers that were inside the building. The shooter was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping.

The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible. Police officers from the Minneapolis Police Department immediately responded. Entered the church and attempted to provide first aid and rescue some of the children that were hiding throughout the building, while other first responders came and EMS responded to rush victims to nearby hospitals.

Two young children, ages eight and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews. Their parents have been notified. 17 other people were injured, 14 of them being children. Two of those children are in critical condition.

The coward who fired these shots ultimately took his own life in the rear of the church. Our hearts are broken for the families who have lost their children. For these young lives that are now fighting to recover, and for our entire community that has been so deeply traumatized by this senseless attack.

We will stand together to protect our children, our schools and our houses of worship. This deliberate act of violence is just a sign of cruelty that is beyond comprehension. Our hearts -- our hearts are broken for everyone that's been affected by this tragedy.

As we begin the difficult path of healing, I want the community to know this that even in the face of such evil, the Minneapolis Police Department and all of our law enforcement partners stand with our community. We stand with these families and with this parish. We will continue to be here for you.

With that, the investigation is obviously in its preliminary stages. And I will attempt to take some questions to provide further information.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, what can you tell us about the suspect in this case? How old was he? Any kind of motivation, any notes, or any other people being --

O'HARA: So, we were looking -- the question was, what can be said about the shooter? We believe it is one suspect, a sole shooter. We believe he is deceased. He is in his early 20s, does not have an extensive known criminal history, and we are looking through information left behind to try and determine some type of motive.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many kids are in the school?

O'HARA: How many children? There were -- I don't have an exact. The question was, how many children at the school? There were dozens of children inside the mass at the time. I don't have an exact count. The children have been relocated into the school, which is where their families are reunifying with them.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible)

O'HARA: The question was, do we know if the student was -- if the shooter was a former school employee or a former student? We don't have that information.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he leave anything behind (inaudible)

O'HARA: There's a vehicle -- the question was, was anything left behind? There's a vehicle that we believe that the suspect used, that is being searched, and we are -- we will be conducting other searches related to this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was there a vehicle and where was it parked?

O'HARA: Inside the parking lobby here.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- some neighbors who said that the door to the church had the barricade. Is that correct?

O'HARA: Yep. So, the question was, neighbors had said that the door to the church had been barricaded. The shooter approached on one side of the church building, and on that side at least two doors. It appears there had been like a two by four place, so not all of the doors around the building, but on the side where the shooter did fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And on the outside?

O'HARA: On the outside, yes.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was there any explosive by that time?

O'HARA: The question was, was there any explosives? There were reports of that. There were no explosives or improvised devices that we found. I do believe there was one. I guess you would call it a smoke bomb, like not an explosive, but a sort of a firework that would release smoke.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And which side of the door, north, south?

O'HARA: The side that is closest to us, here, on this side. Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

O'HARA: I don't have specific information on that that I can lose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible)

O'HARA: Yeah. The question was, is he dead from a gunshot wound? The answer is yes. We believe he took his own life in the parking lot.

[12:05:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was this outside or inside that he was shooting?

O'HARA: The question was, was he shooting outside and inside? He was absolutely shooting outside of the building, on the side of the church, inside through the windows. It appears he may have gone inside, but I don't believe we've located any casings inside the building, so I'm not certain if he fired, also while inside. It appears, if not all, most of the shooting happened outside the building.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chief, is this shooting related to any other shootings that happened in the last few hours?

O'HARA: So, yeah. Taylor is asking, is this related to any of the other shootings. This does not appear to be related to any other shooting in the city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (inaudible)

O'HARA: The question was, how many rounds? I would say it's in the dozens. We don't have an exact count. There's a sidewalk on the outside as well as a grassy area. So obviously, we are -- we are going through and taking our time to process the scene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's firing his one weapon with the rifle?

O'HARA: The question was, was he firing one weapon? We believe he had fired all three. He had a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible)

O'HARA: Were the weapons -- was he lawfully carrying the weapons? I don't have that information, and I don't have any information on any significant criminal history either.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible) O'HARA: It appeared he had some black clothing on his cargo type pants. I guess you could interpret that as, you know, however you like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for helping us to get the information out today. We have a lot -- needs to be done. We will return back later today to provide more details as they become available, and we'll let you know how you can know about that in the moment that comes. Thank you.

O'HARA: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can the public help?

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: You have been watching a press conference with local officials, the mayor of Minneapolis, the police chief of Minneapolis, giving some absolutely horrific news. And that news is that two children, ages eight and 10 were killed as they sat in the pew of a church praying. 17 others are injured, including 14 other children, two are in critical condition.

This is something that is beyond recognition. We heard the word cowardice multiple times from the Police Chief Brian O'Hara, about the situation that is just absolutely senseless, senseless, and the way in which this alleged shooter conducted this killing spree is just beyond imagination.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is following all of these breaking developments. Isabel, one of the many things that just -- it's almost impossible to repeat that this suspect went into these -- the church from the outside through windows. He had a rifle, shotgun and a pistol. And he just began shooting from the outside, through the window at mostly children in a church during the school day praying.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As dozens of them were gathered during their first week of school and this happening at the same time during an all-school mass, where they were all together, so excited and sharing in this new chapter of their educational experience the first week of school.

What we saw there was a clearly horrified mayor of the city of Minneapolis and a horrified police chief that said that during mass, this gunman approached and began firing rounds through the windows, toward the children sitting in pews, praying. He struck worshipers. He struck children.

The police chief saying that he came armed with three different guns, a pistol, a rifle, a shotgun. They believe he fired all three of them, and they believe he took his own life. We heard the chief calling it a deliberate act of violence, sheer cruelty and cowardice. Firing into a church full of children is incomprehensible.

And then unfortunately, the news that we got there from the chief, two children killed as they were praying, just ages eight and 10. And then we also heard more about the number of injured, 17 people injured, the vast majority of them, 14 of them being children, two of these 17 in critical condition.

[12:10:00]

We're learning a little bit more about the shooter, too, somebody, a male in his early 20s, that the chief says does not have an extensive history, a criminal history there. They will be just searching through his vehicle left there at the church, at the school, and piecing together what happened and why. Dana?

BASH: Yeah. The why is among the many questions that are just impossible to comprehend. Isabel, thank you so much. Before we talk to our distinguished law enforcement experts. I do want to just go back to some of what the police chief said about what they have learned. Just in the last couple of hours since this tragedy took place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'HARA: During the mass, a gunman approached on the outside, on the side of the building and began firing a rifle through the church windows, towards the children sitting in the pews at the mass. Shooting through the windows, he struck children and worshipers that were inside the building. The shooter was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: We have a team of CNN analysts and reporters standing by, Andrew McCabe, former FBI -- acting FBI Director. I do want to go to you first about -- I'm there's so many questions. First of all, just the fact that this suspect, according to the Minneapolis police chief, does not have an extensive known criminal history. What does that tell you?

ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Well, it tells us that he is not dissimilar from many other mass shooters and certainly many other school shooters. I think it's -- I don't have the statistic -- the entirety of the statistics to back this up. But it's -- if you look at kind of notorious school shootings, be that Columbine, Uvalde, Sandy Hook, you know, the list goes on and on, Parkland, although I believe. The Parkland shooter had some run ins with the law.

It's fairly common that these people are not kind of repeat criminal offenders, or people who were kind of below the radar as it were, and simmering in one way or another, and ultimately become fixated on this idea of victimizing children in school as some way of satisfying that grievance, that desire for notoriety or fame, that desire for, you know, vengeance upon you for in response to things that they've suffered in their lives.

Whatever that might be. And we will -- I should say we -- the investigators involved here will dig and dig as far as they possibly can to figure that out in this circumstance as well. But really not uncommon that he doesn't have an extensive criminal history.

I should say also the fact that we now know that they believe he left a vehicle at the scene, which is also very common with these shootings. Those -- that vehicle -- those vehicles typically tend to be a source, a great -- a source of a lot of revelatory evidence. So, as we hear more from law enforcement --

BASH: Andy, forgive me for jumping in. We want to go to a press conference currently happening at Minneapolis' hospital.

DR. THOMAS WYATT, CHAIRMAN OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, HENNEPIN CO. MEDICAL CTR.: The teams that were involved, the resources, again, that were mobilized, our surgical colleagues, our medical -- medicine colleagues, our amazing nursing staff, our psychologists that help process these events for us, environmental services, all those involved. Hennepin EMS brought in all the -- scene to our organization, and we're very lucky to have two emergency medicine -- Emergency Medical Services directors that were on scene and able to provide us with really important information, that again, helped us to prepare for this event.

So, I don't have any individual or specific information about the patients at this time for you, so that's all I can share. Thank you for being here. Any questions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, there were in critical condition?

WYATT: Seven were brought in as critical patients. At this time, I can't -- I don't know the updates on what the conditions are, many of them. Four of them required the operating room, as I said.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (inaudible)

WYATT: There were, again, nine of the 11 patients were pediatric ages. I can't remember the exact name, the exact ages, I believe it's six, all the way up to 14. That's the range.

[12:15:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you just tell us a little bit about what types of teams you had working this morning? How many people it takes to treat (inaudible)?

WYATT: Yeah. You know, whenever -- whenever that type of page goes out again, it really puts into motion a lot of big response from all of the teams. And so, we are -- because we're level one trauma center. We have to, you know, mobilize certain types of resources, like, you know, operating rooms and the surgical services.

We have to have emergency providers and nurses. We have to, you know, mobilize things like the laboratory and the blood bank. So, there's a lot of -- lot of planning, and, again, a lot of exercises we do throughout the year to prepare for these events. And unfortunately, you know, we respond to many of them throughout the year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you talk about the injuries at all, or any type of what you're seeing here with some of these patients?

WYATT: You know, I can't get into specifics, but we are dealing with gunshot wound injuries from apparently, a high velocity weapon. And you know, gunshot wounds can be very problematic because they can involve multiple body systems, and again, they require a lot of resources to manage. But again, you know, we see a lot of gunshot wounds here at Hennepin healthcare, and we're among the best in the nation every year at managing penetrating trauma. So, we're -- we are used to seeing them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell us what where the status of the 11 or any of them still in surgery?

WYATT: I can't. I don't know the status, so that I can't share that with you at this time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does anyone shots more than once?

WYATT: I can't share that information with you at this time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the families of some of the victims that made their way here?

WYATT: Yeah. We've had -- quite a bit of effort to stand up a reunification center across the street here in our clinical specialty care building. And so, to my knowledge, I believe all, or almost all of the families and loved ones have been reunited with patients to know their status.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know if anyone is being treated at any other locations?

WYATT: My understanding was, we had a lot of the non-critical patients that went to children's hospital. And I believe one went to Masonic Children's Hospital as well. I don't know the status of any of those patients.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you speak to that's all it takes on physicians here (inaudible) handle these types of cases and fast casualty cases within hours?

WYATT: Yeah, it does take a toll. Thank you for asking, you know, asking that question. I think again, we have psychologists that we have dedicated to our emergency department to help with our providers and our nurses and other workers to manage these types of events. Again, you know, we've had two mass casualty events happen in the last 24 hours. I mean, that does take a toll.

But we also have to recognize that we are here as a critical resource for our community, and we have to take time to process, you know, these -- the care that we deliver in these situations, and we have to be able to move forward because we are obviously needed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And none of those patients have been discharged?

WYATT: Not to my knowledge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said there were 11 total, and nine of them were pediatrics, ages six to 14, except one in critical condition. Are all of those that are pediatric, those six to 14 are all of those in critical condition? Are the ones that are older also in critical condition?

WYATT: I don't want to miss speaker. I believe that all of the pediatric patients were the ones that were in the critical condition, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible)

WYATT: You did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you give us your specific title one more time, Doctor?

WYATT: That's Thomas Wyatt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Wyatt?

WYATT: Yeah. The chair of emergency medicine at Hennepin Healthcare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

WYATT: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Check out our newsroom too, because I will be posting the exact information on the patients, their conditions, you know, just those general conditions and the numbers in Hennepin Healthcare newsroom. Thanks for coming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you anticipate any other updates coming from the day?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm hoping to give another update later, just again, general conditions. Thank you, everyone.

BASH: OK. We've been listening to a press conference at the Hennepin medical center in Minneapolis. Dr. Thomas Wyatt, who's the chair of emergency medicine, said that they are treating 11 patients there, and that nine of them are children, seven are in critical condition. And unfortunately, he said that gunshot wounds are something that they have become accustomed too. This is obviously different when it -- when we're talking about the kind of people, children and the quantity, for sure.

I want to go now to John Miller. John Miller, I want to turn back to what we were hearing from law enforcement. And the fact that not only did this alleged shooter come in with these three rifles, which they believe all were shot -- excuse me, a rifle, shotgun and pistol, three firearms. There is a report that he barricaded the one door with a two-by-four. I mean the level of depravity is just completely incomprehensible.

[12:20:00]

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: So, Dana, let's break that down. Because, you know, throughout the Chief Brian O'Hara's comments, there were these details that emerged that tell us a few things. So, the individual shows up at 8:30, the all school mass is going on. We heard the mayor say, I don't want to hear about thoughts and prayers. These children were gunned down while they were literally praying in church.

Quite a dramatic statement. But on the gunman, what Chief O'Hara tells us is three guns, the rifle, the pistol, the shotgun. He says that they believe, based on the shell casings on the scene that he fired all three, which explains what an eyewitness told us some time ago about hearing sporadic bursts of gunfire.

The pause is in between likely as the gunman transitioned from one weapon that he had emptied to another, which he emptied to another. Talking about dozens of shell casings found on the scene, according to Chief O'Hara, which may indicate even that he either exhausted the ammunition in those weapons or possibly reloaded, couldn't even give us a count on the number of shots fired, because they're still recovering evidence.

But let's get to what you pointed out a minute ago. The idea of two sets of two-by-fours placed at doors on the outside of the church. Now, typically what we see in these active shooters involving schools or churches is, were the doors locked? Could the gunman have gotten access to the inside?

In this case, he reversed that process, it appears. It appears that by putting those two-by-fours through the door handles, if people tried to flee, the shooting flee the building that they wouldn't have been able to get out. Was that an effort on his part to contain them, basically into this fishbowl where he was firing through the windows at these targets?

He also told us, and we had grappled with this earlier, a report of an explosive device that rather what they recovered inside was a smoke device. These are common, they can be purchased online. They're used for various purposes and in shooting games with paintball and things like that, but that also may have been used as a distraction device to let smoke out inside the building to hamper people's escape or vision as to where to go.

When you combine all of these things, showing up dressed in black 15 minutes after the start of the event, to make sure that it would be full of people wearing tactical clothing, possessing multiple firearms, barricading the doors, potentially to block the escape of victims who could have fled and taking his life roughly around the time when police would have been arriving at the scene.

You see an enormous amount of preoperational planning of intent. We talked about these shooters and how there was this person and they had issues and they suddenly snapped. We know they don't snap. This is a slow boil, and they do a lot of planning in advance, and they have a vision of how this is going to unfold.

And even with all of the confusion and trauma intention that goes on, when an event like this begins, we see a pattern where they amazingly stay focused on trying to achieve maximum lethality, which is the effort that occurred today.

BASH: Thank you for that reporting, John. I mean, the idea that, yes, we're talking about victims and people. We're talking about children, little children, who, according to the police chief, were being locked inside a church while they pray so that he could use them as target practice to murder them as many as he could. It is just beyond the pale.

I do want to now bring in Senator Amy Klobuchar, the senior senator from Minnesota, lifelong Minnesota, Minneapolis resident. First of all, I'm so sorry about what's going on in your own community. I know, Senator, that you have been speaking. Let's start with the human side of this. What I was just referring to. You've been speaking to family members, to parents of these very young children. What are you hearing?

[12:25:00]

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): So, first of all, I appreciate the work of the mayor, talked to the governor and our first responders, the hospital workers. I was -- the fact that we had children's hospital that's renowned so nearby are just -- we want these kids to be saved. But talking to the parents is where you really, I guess, you just -- your heart just wants to break.

So, one of my former employees, who was with me a long time. She said I could use her name, Kate Nilan. Her daughter Cora was in there. She was one of the older kids. This is a pre-K through eighth grade school. Loved school in the neighborhood, beloved school with all the parents, and that church is right there next to it.

So, the kids were in the mass, and they were packed in there. And so, this girl, seventh, eighth grade, literally watched her friends, some of her best friends be shot, one in the neck, one in the stomach. And when they were running out, when they finally got out, she was the one, this child, who had to tell one of her friend's dad's that the friend had been shot.

And, of course, the chaos who would ensue in any place when there's a mass shooting like this. And the other information, you know, that I got from the mayor and others were, of course, consistent with what you've heard. This was a man, a mad man, acting alone. Somehow knows about this ceremony. All those facts will come out, standing outside of this mass and shooting one by one by one, these kids down, as they're praying in the church.

BASH: I mean, just to hear you describe, Cora, an eighth grader -- seventh or eighth grader having to tell the parent of her friend that they were shot. It's, I mean, anybody with kids, anybody with a beating heart, it's just -- it's just beyond.

KLOBUCHAR: Right.

BASH: Do you know anything more about those who -- those, more broadly, who were injured, those who were killed, an eight and 10- year-old. KLOBUCHAR: You're right. An eight and a 10-year-old, and then you have a total of 19 that we know of that were hit. 17, of course, we only -- we have two dead right now, 17 injured, and of those 14 were children. So, there were also adults who were shot, right? There were most likely teachers, or -- we don't know, people involved in the service.

So, there were also adults that were shot. And I'm sure as we hear the details on this, the stories of these people trying to get out those doors, trying to scramble underneath the pews, which is what they were told to do, to protect themselves.

I know they're going to be tragic, but there will also be stories of heroism, stories of faith, stories of parents and others helping each other. But it is -- when you think about what happened here and the fact that he had these three guns, multiple guns, I believe it was something over some kind of grievance that may not even involve the school, and we will -- those facts will be revealed when the police have thoroughly investigated them.

But this is a time, as the mayor said, this could be -- these just aren't someone else's kids. Anyone can imagine, on the first day of school. I remember this, dropping your child off to a bus or bringing them to the school, thinking they're going to be safe. It's just the most horrific thing any parent. And I know you are a parent as well, Dana, any parent can imagine.

BASH: Yeah, it sure is. Senator, you mentioned that I know that you want to let law enforcement take the lead here. But you just mentioned that you believe that this individual had some kind of grievance, not even related to the school. Is there anything else you can share?

KLOBUCHAR: Not really. I just think that they have to get to the bottom of this. As you know, with these scenes from covering so many of them that there will be rumors, and then they're not true, and then you figure it out. But I think this image of this gunman shooting through these windows, picking off these kids while they're praying is something that is going to be with people for a long time. When you think about guns, and you think about, as the mayor said, thoughts and prayers just aren't enough here right now because these kids were actually praying.

BASH: Yeah. I do want to listen to that because that sent chills up my spine. I'm sure everybody spine when they heard the mayor say that. Let's listen to that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JACOB FREY (D) MINNEAPOLIS: Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church. These are kids that should be learning with their friends. They should be playing on the playground. They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence and their parents should have the same kind of assurance.