A neighbor of Annunciation Catholic School who raced to the scene after hearing gunshots from his home comforted kids who had been shot in the head and neck, including one young girl who begged him “please just hold my hand.”
Pat Scallen, who lives around the corner from the Minneapolis church and school, told ABC News that he saw a magazine on the ground outside the house of worship before throngs of panicked victims came rushing out of the entry doors.
Wounded children were among those escaping, including a young boy and girl who were shot in the head and a girl who took a bullet to the neck.
People visit a memorial to yesterday’s shooting victims in front of Annunciation Catholic Church on August 28, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Getty Images
The entrance to the church where the shooting took place is seen. REUTERSHe told the outlet that the girl who had been shot in the head asked him as she bled, “Please just hold my hand.”
“I did,” Scallen assured.
The little girl’s condition was not clear Thursday.
Here's what we know about the Catholic school shooting in Minneapolis
- Students had begun their first week of school at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, two days before the shooting.
- Robin Westman, a 23-year-old trans woman, opened fire through the stained glass windows on Wednesday morning during a celebratory back-to-school Mass filled with children.
- The shooting killed two children and injured at least 18 others, before Westman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
- Westman had written “Kill Donald Trump” and “for the children” on gun magazines, and posted videos of a handwritten manifesto.
- Westman’s mother had worked at the school.
“They were very frightened. They wanted their mom and dad,” he told the outlet. “And I just, I sat them down and just tried to keep them calm, and I was watching them close to see if there’d be any change in their status,” he said.
Despite the tragic day, Scallen expressed confidence that the community will lift itself out of overwhelming sadness.
“There’s a spirit here, and I know they’ll be grieving for a while, but this place, they’ll come back,” he said.
Robin Westman, 23, murdered two children and injured 18 other people in Wednesday’s assault on the church — 14 of the wounded victims were kids, ages 6-15. Many remain in critical condition.
The deranged transgender shooter took his own life after unleashing the cowardly assault.
