BURSTThe city of Minneapolis is “united in grief” and one that will be “united in action” following a Wednesday school shooting in which two children were killed and 17 others were injured, according to Mayor Jacob Frey (D).
Frey during a Thursday morning interview with ABC News “Good Morning America” commended the “incredibly brave” faculty and teachers who “protected these kids from harm” and praised police officers who “ran towards danger when the rest of us could have run in the other direction.”
“This was a horrific tragedy in Minneapolis, and then again how many times have you heard politicians talk about an unspeakable tragedy, and yet this kind of thing happens again and again. Prayers, thoughts, they are certainly welcomed, but they are not enough. Right now, we have a city that is united in grief, and we have a city that is gonna be united in action,” Frey said.
“Because the truth is that there needs to be change, so that we don't have another mayor in another month and-a-half, talking about a tragedy that happened in their city,” the mayor told ABC News’ Rebecca Jarvis.
Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed in the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School as a mass was beginning.
The shooter, identified as a 23-year-old Robin Westman, barricaded the church's door during the shooting and ended up dying by suicide due to gunshot wounds, according to law enforcement.
Westman was dressed in black and had a shotgun, rifle and a pistol, police said.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Wednesday that Westman identified as transgender and that the bureau is probing the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.
Frey said early Thursday that people with “severe” mental health issues should not be able to have access to guns.
“Yet, this particular individual had access to a heap ton of them. People who say, ‘This is not about guns,’ you gotta be kidding me. This is about guns. We do need to take action, there are other countries around the world, where horrific acts have taken place like this; and then they step up to make a change, so in fact it does not happen again,” the mayor said.
Frey also spoke to the families of the victims, saying, “We have to be thinking about them.”
“Not as ‘someone else's kids,’ but as our own. Think about them as our own kids. Consider how you would feel. Think about that last interaction you had with your children this morning… Every parent should have the assurance their kid is going to be able to get home safely,” the mayor told Jarvis. “And tragically that did not happen for these parents right now.”