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The Situation Room

Deadly Mass Shooting at Catholic School in Minneapolis. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired August 27, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:34:32]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, I want to go straight to CNN reporter McKenna Ewen, who is on the ground in Minneapolis at the reunification site for families at Annunciation Church, where there was an apparent school shooting earlier today.

McKenna, what are you seeing there?

MCKENNA EWEN, CNN JOURNALIST: Just moments ago, a mom and her son just walked past me, ducked under the caution tape. She was holding his hand really tight.

[11:35:01]

You could tell he still had his name tag on, likely from the first few days of school. He had brand-new speakers, not the pickup that was expected by any means today.

When I arrived at the scene, there was a group of young schoolgirls, elementary age, that were kind of up on a hill, and they were a single file in line, which I think is for the parents to be able to see them from the sidewalk here.

There's a line of ambulances, police vehicles. And so the girls are kind of above everything just so their parents are able to reconnect. On the steps, there are a handful of adults. I can't tell if it's parents or teachers, but they're sitting on the steps. I see a police officer was kind of helping with a wound on someone's elbow there.

It looks like there's a few parents who are kind of sitting distanced from each other, and I'm not sure if they're waiting or what is happening there. Behind the school, there appears to be a way that parents can kind of go through to try to connect with their students in some form.

There's a priest on site who kind of appears to be acting as the contact for a lot of the law enforcement officials here. I have seen them having conversations with a couple of adults. Could be parents or teachers as well, it looks like trying to console them, to try to process what's happening.

And then the last interaction that really struck me was a young kid came by and holding his mom's hand, just kind of ducked some of the police tape. And the kid, you could tell, had this sort of energy, trying to process what exactly he was going through. His mom almost had to keep him from jumping or moving out of his feet.

And you could just see the look on her face, both of relief, but just tremendous stress and uncertainty about just what happened here moments ago.

BROWN: Yes, stress and uncertainty, to say the least.

All right, McKenna, we're going to check back in with you soon.

I want to go to our John Miller, CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst.

Because I know, John, you have been working in your sources, so I want to hear what information you have been able to get. At the same time, I also want to note for our viewers that the press conference has been pushed back to 12:00 p.m. Eastern time from officials there on the ground.

So, John, what are you learning?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, Pam, like all of these incidents, the granularity of this is coming together slowly and in different pieces.

So, what I'm going to go through is still preliminary. We always expect this information to shift and change. But as the picture is emerging, it appears that at 8:30 this morning, an individual dressed in black carrying a rifle -- these are the preliminary reports -- showed up at the school in open fire.

We have an ear witness who's been interviewed by the affiliate who we have had on our air who describes hearing between 30 and 50 shots, he says, from two blocks away. That comports with some of the information we have received, which is that the shooter opened fire from the outside of the school through the windows, where this event was taking place that's been described as an all-school mass and shot or injured numerous people.

So, that would suggest that he went through probably a 30-round magazine on that rifle. He talked about the shots being sporadic, the witness, perhaps a magazine change, and then another number of rounds. He talked about it taking a couple of minutes.

And then we do know from sources that the gunman died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, which may suggest that as police were arriving, or as he decided that his terrible work was done, that he took his own life. And that is the picture that we're getting. Now, we were expecting

that news conference right now at 11:30. Now, we know it's been pushed back to 12:00. We're expecting to hear from Brian O'Hara, the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department. Brian has been there since 2022, a very experienced major city chief.

He was brought in to bring reforms to the Minneapolis police. But on a day like this, this is core police work. And we're expecting to hear from him and other officials, where we will get the news. We have heard about multiple people shot. We have heard about the potential for fatalities.

What we have not heard is numbers, which, of course, in a situation where you have a school and children, just to think about it is very disturbing.

[11:40:07]

BROWN: Let me just follow up with you quickly, John, because you had said he. Do you know through your sources that the suspect is a male and anything else about the suspect in terms of the connection to the school?

MILLER: In the reports I received, it is referred to the shooter in some cases as a him, but, again, I don't have that confirmed.

BROWN: OK, John Miller, thanks so much. We will check back in with you soon.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROWN: And we are continuing to cover this breaking news of a school shooting in Minneapolis.

[11:45:00]

We have new sound from affiliate WCCO, who spoke with a man stopped by someone trying to escape that shooting. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was two cars in front of us that just stopped in front of the school. So we were like the third car behind. And I saw a man running up the street the other way.

And he was frantically running, like he was running for his life. And so that kind of alerted me that something was wrong. We heard probably about 15 to 20 gunshots in about 30 seconds. So we just booked it.

We took a we took a left. We jumped on Harriet. We drove by, and we said: "Are you OK? Do you want you want to come in the car with us?"

And he said: "Yes, yes, please." He's like: "Someone's shooting at me. Someone's shooting at me."

And so we get in the car and we just ask him what's going on. He said that a man dressed in all black was firing shots, and he got -- he didn't see anything else besides what he was wearing. But he hit the ground. His hands were all beat up from hitting the ground so hard. Then he got up and he said: "I have to start running. I have to go."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And that aligns with what our John Miller is told from his sources, that there was a suspect dressed in all black carrying a rifle arriving at the Annunciation Catholic School at around 8:30 this morning and shooting at the windows where this all-school mass was happening.

And I want to go to Isabel Rosales for more on this, because you have some new details on the victims here, right, Isabel?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pam, right.

We're getting new details about, unfortunately, children here who have been injured or at least are receiving care. CNN has confirmed with Children's Minnesota -- this is a pediatric trauma hospital -- that it is seeing six children that have been transferred there from Annunciation School.

And according to our CNN affiliate WCCO, there are at least 10 children at another nearby hospital that are receiving care. They're citing Bishop Kevin Kenney, an auxiliary bishop at the Archdiocese of St. Paul in Minneapolis. So, altogether, this means that, at least so far, 16 total children at the school are receiving medical care at nearby hospitals.

We are expecting to hear here in the noon hour both from Hennepin Healthcare, who hopefully will give us more details on that, but also the city of Minneapolis to give us more details there into what happened here in this police investigation and shooting investigation.

Meanwhile, there is a reunification center that has been set up at Annunciation School there, with the police department asking families to go there to pick up their children.

And what we're seeing from live images from our affiliate WCCO are just deeply emotional, impactful moments of families visibly distraught, parents covering their mouths, some crying, picking up their children, holding them tightly by the hand, giving them hugs, and then quickly getting away from the scene and taking them home.

And other people too on their phones, hopefully -- seemingly, rather, trying to get more information, more details about this incident, again, happening during the first week of school for these children.

BROWN: Yes, it shouldn't be the case where a parent drops off their child wondering if they're going to see them by the end of the school day. But, unfortunately, for some of these parents, the reality is, their kids are in the hospital, at the very least. We heard from Isabel Rosales at least 16 children are receiving medical care. And John Miller is providing these new details, saying that the suspect was dressed in black, arrived at around 8:30. This all-school mass started at around 8:15, according to the school Web site, and then started shooting through the windows, where all these children and faculty were gathered.

It appears that this was targeted.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: No, it appears that this was a target of this shooter.

And the fact that they weren't in the building also tells us a little bit, right, because one of the things that has happened in the last few years, Pamela, is that schools have been trying to figure out how to protect their kids once they're inside, to not allow people to get into the building, for instance, in Uvalde, where there was a door that was left ajar.

It was not -- that didn't lock, right, and wasn't working properly. And so that's how that shooter was able to get into that building. The building, the school building, or in this case a church, would have been the place where you're expecting kids to be safe.

And -- but this person didn't bother getting in, right? They were able to access the building or be able to shoot at these people in very close quarters. And they did it from outside and, according to that eyewitness that we just heard from just a few minutes ago, it appears was also taking shots at people who are outside of the building.

So that's another indicator of perhaps what this shooter was at this point really just trying to get a body count, right, trying to kill or harm as many people as possible. Now, one of the things that I think, when we do get this press conference at noon, the police are going to be able to tell us a lot more.

Because of the fact that the shooter is dead, it means that there is no prosecution of a case to go forward, we presume...

[11:50:05]

BROWN: Right.

PEREZ: ... unless they can find that there was an accomplice who was involved in any of this.

Usually, Pam, though, we -- you and I have done this so many, many times and we have seen almost always it's one shooter and it's one person who has an intent to carry out evil.

BROWN: Yes. Just you're absolutely right. And so hopefully because the shooter is dead, we will be getting some more information than we would otherwise if they're building a case against the suspect.

PEREZ: Right.

BROWN: In this case, that's not happening because he's dead.

So we will continue to monitor this and we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROWN: And we are just learning that President Trump has spoken to Minnesota Governor Walz amid this Minnesota school shooting, where we are learning that at least 16 children are receiving medical care at hospitals there. And the shooter is dead.

I want to bring in John Miller, CNN chief law enforcement intelligence analyst.

What more are you learning about the shooter here, John?

MILLER: Well, what we're learning so far, Pam, is that he is described by eyewitnesses and by law enforcement sources as an individual who was dressed in black, showed up with a rifle, opened fire around 8:30 this morning.

What we are trying to determine was -- there are initial reports that he opened fire from the outside of the school through the windows. We have that from two law enforcement sources. But I also want to be cautious here because, in the beginning of these things, that information comes from many places, including 911 callers, witnesses and so on.

What I'm trying to determine is, did he open fire from the outside through the windows and then get into the building or did the entire thing happen shooting from the outside to the inside? We will probably learn the answer to that in just a few minutes, when that law enforcement news conference begins.

But that -- those are the early reports, which would explain how, of course, it came by total surprise and how we are told there are up to 20 injuries.

[11:55:06]

Now, what we know is from hospitals that they are treating a number of children. What we don't know among the 20 injuries is whether those were gunshot injuries or other injuries that occurred in the attempt to flee that room when the gunfire opened.

BROWN: Yes.

And I believe we're seeing officials there in Minnesota ahead of this press conference, where we hope to get some more information.

Let's listen in.

JACOB FREY (D), MAYOR OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: There are no words that can capture the horror and the evil of this unspeakable act. Children are dead. There are families that have a deceased child. You

cannot put into words the gravity, the tragedy or the absolute pain of this situation.

We are a Minneapolis family. But to everybody out there, do not think of these as just somebody else's kids. Those families are suffering immense pain right now. Think of this as if it were your own. Every one of us needs to be wrapping our arms around these families, giving them every ounce that we can muster.

These were Minneapolis families. These were American families. And the amount of pain that they are suffering right now is extraordinary. And 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.

These are the sort of basic assurances that every family should have every step of the day, regardless of where they are in our country. 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. Love them. These families have forever been changed, and we have all been changed with them. We need to do everything possible to support them through this time. We have a family resource center that has been set up. I'm grateful for all of the law enforcement agencies from a number of different jurisdictions, all the different departmental support that we have received.

They're going to be working tirelessly. There's also a family resource center that is being set up as we speak to make sure that we're there for everybody.

Again, to the families that are suffering, to those that have experienced loss, I'm so deeply sorry. We're going to be with you every step of the way. We love you. This kind of act of evil should never happen, and it happens far too often.

The chief will provide additional details.

BRIAN O'HARA, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, POLICE CHIEF: My name is Brian O'Hara, B-R-I-A-N O-apostrophe-H-A-R-A. I am the Minneapolis police chief.

Earlier today, just before 8:30 am, our city experienced an unthinkable tragedy. Minneapolis police officers responded to a report of a shooting at a mass that was happening at the Annunciation Roman Catholic Church on the block behind me.

This worship service was marking the first week of school for children that are attending the Annunciation Catholic School. 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. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.