A DISTURBING video shows the sheer panic seconds after a shooter opened fire into a Minneapolis church on Wednesday killing two children and injuring 18 other people.
Dressed in their school uniforms, groups of children can be seen sprinting through the doors as they try to flee the harrowing scenes.
CNNChildren were running out, some holding each other’s hands[/caption]
APTwo children were killed in the attack on Wednesday morning[/caption]
Just moments before, 23-year-old killer Robin Westman shot through the building’s stained-glass windows while armed with three guns before dying by suicide in the parking lot.
Two students, eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski, were murdered as they sat in the church pews praying during their first week back at school.
The Mass had started just minutes before the first 911 call was made, alerting first responders to the devastating scene that injured 18, mostly children.
The person recording the clip, obtained by CNN, held the door open as staffers and children rushed to safety, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
One child held his ears, the loud gunfire ringing through the church just seconds beforehand.
Students ran out ducking and some were seen holding each other as they fled.
A large statue of Jesus Christ on the cross hung above the altar as the chaotic scene played out underneath.
One boy waited for his friend at the doorway after realizing he was no longer behind him. Another child had his shoes in his hands.
Older children were seen guiding the younger ones out.
The Catholic school, ranging from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, had just begun classes on Monday.
The students had just started their first semester, with the year’s theme titled “future filled with hope.”
Police are still looking for the motive after shooter Westman left behind hundreds of hateful hand-written letters describing fantasies of killing young children and hatred for multiple groups of people.
“We had just sat back down after Psalms were read,” Javen Willis, a 13-year-old student, told NBC News.
“We were just waiting, honestly, for the next part of the Mass to continue. And all I hear is, ‘Pow, pow pow.’”
The church shooting killed two children on Wednesday morning
The shooter had flaunted guns in a YouTube video before the killings, showing that the weapons had multiple disturbing phrases scribbled across them.
Westman fired off 116 rounds with a rifle, 3 shotgun bullets, and attempted to shoot the pistol, but it got stuck, according to police.
Fletcher’s dad, Jessie, refused to say the shooter’s name when he broke his silence on his son’t death on Thursday night but called Westman a coward.
“While the hole in our hearts and lives will never be filled, I hope that in time, our family can find healing,” he said at a press conference.
He said he wanted Fletcher to be remembered “for the person he was and not the act that ended his life.”
Harper’s family also called for gun reform after the girl was gunned down for simply attending school.
“Our hearts are broken, not only as parents, but also for Harper’s sister, who adored her big sister and is grieving an unimaginable loss,” their statement said.
“Change is possible and it is necessary – so that Harper’s story does not become yet another in a long line of tragedies.”
CNNChurchgoers ran after a shooter shot through the windows from outside the building[/caption]
Shutterstock EditorialA motive for the shooting is still unclear[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
